


Strangers at the Gates

by glowspider



Series: The Uzumaki Conundrum [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pre-Slash, Uchiha Obito Lives, like hella canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-07-28 18:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16247126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowspider/pseuds/glowspider
Summary: Sasuke is an angsty tween with plans. Plans to bag himself an instant family through the power of matrimony, since nearly all of his blood ties have been killed off in the most traumatizing way possible. With the help of a no-nonsense best friend, an overbearing alcoholic doctor, and a goofy cousin with a heart of gold, Sasuke just might succeed. The only problem? Sasuke despises his prospective fiancé.





	1. First Impressions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto fanfiction in the year 2018? It's more likely than you think.  
> It's been so long since I've seen or read anything relating to Naruto, but it's nostalgic for me. That being said, there's probably a fair amount of inaccuracies regarding timelines, character motivations, and canon events. I'm choosing to sweep that all under the canon divergence tag. I almost never write anything in the narrative form, so sorry in advance for the awkward prose and rushed editing. Enjoy!

Sasuke is thirteen years old, and he has never seen the village this active before.

Well, actually, that’s not quite true, but Sasuke was six back then and can’t remember much beyond those awful few minutes where he was paralyzed in shock, his parents’ blood congealing around his shoes as Itachi disappeared into the night. He can’t exactly be blamed for not paying attention to the rest of Konoha at the worst moment in his life.

A hand reaches out to cup Sasuke’s left shoulder and Sasuke jumps, kunai already in hand, before it registers that it’s only Obito who broke him from his dark train of thought. Obito has always been good at showing up when Sasuke’s needed him.

He’s here now, perched on the highest rooftop in Konoha, because he knows this is Sasuke’s favorite hiding spot in the entire village. Sasuke recalls describing it a few years ago, after Obito checked him out of the hospital with the Hokage’s permission. He felt stupid saying it then, but the words still ring true.

From up here, Sasuke can see the tall gates of Konoha, to where the road winds into the forest. He can see Training Grounds 13 through 17, where Genin like himself run laps under their sensei’s watchful eyes. He sees the civilian residential district where Sakura lives, and the shopping district where Ichiraku Ramen is located. If Sasuke turns his head just right, he sees the Hokage monument, where the stone faces of the strongest shinobi in the world watch over him. Up here, people are the sizes of ants, but it's comforting. Sasuke imagines himself being that small, a blade of grass amongst millions, without a clan name or a missing, homicidal brother, free to exist without expectations and survivor’s guilt.

Back then Obito was a stranger in all but blood, but Sasuke somehow felt comfortable talking to him. Now, at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, they sit on the same rooftop, watching the villagers fuss about.  
Obito speaks up, an optimistic lilt to his voice.  
“What’s on your mind?”

Sasuke presses himself into Obito’s side in the manliest way possible because he’s thirteen and a proper Shinobi doesn’t snuggle damn it.  
“I’ve just been thinking a lot about things lately.”

“Well,” Obito replies,” that’s never a good sign. I didn’t even know you were capable of thinking.”

For that remark, Sasuke viciously kicks Obito's shin.  
“As if you’re any better! I’m sure Kakashi has plenty of stories to tell about your brand of Uchiha stupidity.”

Obito feigns hurt.  
“Fine, fine! I just don’t know what happened to my sweet baby cousin, and why this little gremlin has taken his place.”

Sasuke beams up at Obito with a faker smile than his weird teammate Sai. He pauses for a few seconds to consider his words.  
“I think,” Sasuke says hesitantly, “that I’m excited for tomorrow.”

“You should be. This is the biggest thing in Konoha since sliced bread.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes at his cousin’s dorky joke and continues.  
“I’m not used to feeling optimistic about about things, not when it comes to this village. But this is a change. I’m hoping that it can be a change for the better.”

Obito looks out towards the Hokage monument. From this angle, Sasuke can only see his profile, the white scars on Obito’s right half completely hidden from view. He thinks that maybe Obito has practiced hiding his face this way, so people don’t gaze at the missing eye or marred features. It’s more subtle than something like Kakashi’s mask.

“I’m hoping for something better too, kiddo.”

Bastard. Obito knows Sasuke hates being called kiddo. This transgression cannot go unpunished!

Unbeknownst to the busy villagers below, two Uchihas wrestle on the rooftops above them, childlike and gleeful despite all they’ve suffered through. Tomorrow will be a good day.

 

\----

 

1 Week Ago

Sakura comes to Training Ground 22 five minutes late, but thirteen minutes earlier than Kakashi. Sasuke is rotating between stretching and haphazard senbon throwing at the nearest tree. Sai is happily sketching, and Sasuke deliberately avoids thinking about the fact that it’s probably a very graphic nude portrait.

Sakura is running, but she jerks to a stop when she comes within screeching distance of the two boys. Her short pink hair is askew, and she’s breathing heavily like she just went through Gai’s Youthful and Hip Young Shinobi Warm Up Routine. Sasuke’s not gonna bother to ask. He’s already decided he doesn’t care.

It’s too bad that Sakura’s not on the same page because she bursts out screaming.

“—IWASJUSTWITHINO-PIGANDSHETOLDMETHATSHEHEARDARUMORFROMHERDADTHATTHEUZUMAKISAREVISITINGKONOHAINAWEEK—”

“Slow down, take a breath, and try again.” Sasuke cuts her off with an irritated sigh.

“I WAS WITH INO-PIG AN—"

“Quieter, Sakura.”

Sai is giving one of his creepy smiles again, probably hoping that the two of them will start fighting like usual.

Sakura, surprisingly, complies.

“I was with Ino, and she said that her dad said that the Uzumakis are visiting Konoha next week.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sasuke replies, “the Uzumakis haven’t come to Konoha since the fall of Uzushio. I’m sure that they have much better things to do than attend diplomatic meetings with villages that betrayed them. Also, your so-called ‘reliable source’ is the town’s biggest gossip.”

Sakura arches one cotton candy eyebrow and levels Sasuke with the most judging stare to ever judge.  
“I said that Ino heard it from her dad. Her dad, who works with the Hokage.”

And isn’t that interesting. Sasuke is trying not to get his hopes up about some unfounded rumor (please let it be true), but Sakura presents a compelling case. He’s preoccupied with figuring out Team 7’s next course of action when Sai pipes up.

“Who are the Uzumakis?”

 

\----

 

The Uzumakis, for the record, are one of the most influential clans in Shinobi history. They’re known for their vast chakra reserves, their souls deep and powerful enough to contain the worst of the ancient demons. They have a unique bloodline limit that generates chains of chakra to hold even the most powerful ninja. They practically invented the art of Fuinjutsu, and many of their techniques are still a riddle to this day, much to the Yondaime’s chagrin. Konoha-nin wear spirals on their uniforms as a tribute to the Uzumaki contributions to Konoha. Their history with the great Senju clan goes back to the foundation of Konoha, when Uzumaki Mito married Senju Hashirama in the greatest and most powerful and most romantic shinobi coupling in the universe...

...Okay, so it’s possible that Sasuke got all this information from a very drunk and sappy Tsunade at the Hokage’s annual New Year’s party. Clearly the medic missed her grandma dearly.

But despite Tsunade’s slurred words and story embellishment she must've learned from Jiraiya, her words rang truthfully.

Sasuke hoarded the information the way he hoards Obito’s love and his mother’s old dessert recipes, although he hates sweet things.

The idea of a powerful clan, a clan of survivors, headed by a good and kind matriarch and the most powerful Jinchuuriki of her time was too attractive a concept for Sasuke to ignore. He wanted a name other than Uchiha, but there was no clan head to disown him like they did to Obito. He wanted to separate himself from Itachi's spectre, the way Obito confessed he once did to Uchiha Madara.

Naturally, this manifested itself in notebook doodles. Sasuke’s dreams were permanently inscribed with a simple “Mr. Uzumaki Sasuke”.

But, the Uzumakis were a pipe dream and a whimsical child’s fantasy. Sasuke saved himself a lot of embarrassment by not telling anyone about his ambitions.

It would’ve stayed that way if it weren’t for his nosy teammate Sakura.

Sakura, absolute nerd and bookworm that she was. Of course she knew about the Uzumakis, and of course she was researching their Fuinjutsu techniques. But her books were written by ignorant Konoha-nin, and Sasuke had learned firsthand from Tsunade, an Uzumaki relative, and one of the mighty Sanin to boot. It’s hardly Sasuke’s fault he corrected Sakura’s assumptions.

He should’ve known that showing enthusiasm about anything ever would be his downfall. Sakura pried apart his stoic exterior with the skill of an experienced T&I employee, and soon enough he was gushing to her like a waterfall on a sugar rush.

The two kids bonded over shared geekdom about the Uzumakis, and eventually Sasuke learned other cool things about Sakura. Then, they were put on Team 7 together.

The, rest, as they say, is history.

 

\----

 

So in a way, the Uzumakis are responsible for Sasuke finding his best friend.

 

\----

 

After Sakura gives an all-things-Uzumaki crash course to Sai, where Sasuke stays silent because he can’t risk anymore of his dignity, Team 7 starts to brainstorm the best way to confirm this information.

Kakashi pops into existence in a whirl of leaves, with an announcement in the form of a scroll signed off by the Yondaime himself.

Sasuke thinks that maybe, the universe has decided to reward him for all the shit he’s been through, because Team 7 has been given the distinct honor of getting to show the Uzumaki delegation around.

Or, Kakashi amends, the two children who are a part of the Uzumaki delegation. The two children who are the same age as Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai.

Sasuke’s brain is moving 1,000 times faster than his mouth with this revelation, which explains why he doesn’t think before he speaks.  
“I can’t believe we’re getting babysitting duty while the rest of the Genin teams get ahead on actual training and real missions.”

Sakura sees right through his clumsy attempt at deflection. Kakashi remains stoically lazy and unimpressed. Hell, even Sai doesn’t buy his excuse.

Sasuke storms off the field in true Uchiha dramatic fashion. Training can wait—he’s got plans to make.

He calls back over his shoulder, “If we fail the Chunin exams, it’s gonna be your fault, Kakashi!”

 

\----

 

Saturday Morning.  
Uzumaki Arrival: 10 Hours Away

Sasuke glares across the table at Obito, still nursing a bruise he got from their rooftop tussle the night before. Obito smiles sunnily down at his own breakfast, blissfully ignorant of his young charge’s glower. Or, knowing Obito, he’s willfully ignoring Sasuke.

Bastard.

Obito makes it a point for them to eat breakfast together whenever Obito is not on a mission away from the village. He always has some silly reasoning for it, one of those annoying old people phrases like “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, or “you have to start your day off right!” Sasuke, contrary to Obito’s beliefs, isn’t stupid. He knows that the real purpose of Obito’s breakfast policy is to ensure that if one of them doesn’t make it through to the end of the day, they’ve said their proper goodbyes. It’s probably not something that a kid should understand, but this is a Hidden Village. There are more orphans here than needles on a cactus.

Even when Obito isn’t here, he always sends someone in his stead. It’s usually Kakashi, his reluctant and lazy teacher, or it’s Tsunade, who has a weird relationship with Obito that transcends doctor-patient professionalism. Sometimes it's the retired Sandaime, with his grandfatherly wisdom and deep smile lines around his eyes. Once it was even the Yondaime himself, and boy wasn’t that weird, to consider the fact that Konoha’s beloved leader and resident genius once trained Obito and Kakashi.

These breakfasts, like a good Shinobi, are far more complex than they initially seem. They are an unspoken promise from Obito, one that he makes every day for Sasuke. It’s a promise that Sasuke will never be alone, ever again.

Sasuke has a feeling that Obito once lived through this, hated as he was by the clan. Obito never says it directly but there’s a framed picture of the third teammate that Sasuke never met. He’s snooped around in the archives, and her record is painfully short. Died at age thirteen on a mission, six months after Obito was assumed dead in a cave-in accident. Obito stumbled back home not long after that, the clan disowned him for reasons Obito won’t say, and years down the line, Obito adopted Sasuke.

Her name was Rin, and Sasuke thinks that she must've made Obito feel less alone this world. Sasuke wishes he had had the chance to meet her, to thank her for being kind to the man who was so kind to Sasuke in turn.

And Obito has long since buried his demons, and he’s happy here in the village, odd though he is. Sasuke is still working on burying his, but that may take years to come, so the best he can do for now is watch out for and protect this one shred of family he has left.

Obito makes the same promise every day that Sasuke won’t be alone, and he hasn't broken it yet. But, Sasuke thinks it gets lonely here in the apartment with just the two of them. Kakashi is too chicken to pop the question and move in with them, but he’s just another broken puzzle piece. Sasuke needs glue. He needs glue (yes, Sasuke knows it isn’t a perfect metaphor) that can remove the Uchiha fan from his clothes and blood, because he isn’t strong enough to object to Konoha’s expectations for him to wear it. He needs glue that will care for Obito’s still-mending heart, and maybe for Kakashi’s paranoia. He needs glue that will withstand Itachi. He needs glue to save him from himself, a fairytale ending to this hellish story.

Sasuke has entertained the thought of the Uzumakis being the glue ever since he learned about them. Today is Saturday, and the Uzumakis will arrive at sunset tonight.

Sasuke knows he’s handsome from the way the girls whisper about him. His status as an Uchiha gives him a certain prestige, and his outward demeanor has been described by Sakura as “playing hard to get”. It’ll be easy to catch the attention of the Clan Head’s son, a boy about his own age. Everything else will fall into place.

 

\----

 

Sakura barges in just as Obito and Sasuke are finishing up breakfast. She doesn’t put up the polite pretenses or the girlish persona she dons around strangers and friends alike, because Sasuke knows her better than that, and by extension, so does Obito.

Luck has once again favored Sasuke, because a very important aspect of his babysitting duties is opening his home to three of the fifteen visiting Uzumakis. Those three just happen to be the Clan Head, her son, and her niece.

Obito was a bit taken aback when Kakashi delivered the news last week, and he tried to argue against hosting the delegation here in his three-bedroom apartment just north of the red-light district. Sasuke shut him up rather quickly with a kick in the shin, which brings them here, to Saturday morning.

Sakura is a great best friend because she’s always begrudgingly supportive and willing to bury a body or clean a house if Sasuke asks, not that Sasuke would ever admit this to her face. She’s here now with her hair pinned up in a ponytail and heavy-duty rubber gloves to serve as an auxiliary cleaning lady. She nods at the two men at the dinner table with a determined gleam in her eye.  
“Ready to get started?”  
Sasuke gives a curt nod, and Obito nervously gulps.

You see, a good majority of the apartment is very clean. Sasuke is a neat control freak, so his own room and the bathroom are in perfect condition for guests at all times. It’s Obito that’s the problem. Obito is an unabashed collector of junk, and his bedroom and the guest bedroom reap the consequences. They’re cluttered and musty and there’s suspicious stains on the walls, but Sasuke knows this already, and he’s mentally prepared Sakura for the task at hand. Plus, he’s got an ace-in-the-hole if Obito puts up a fight.

Sakura is already in Obito’s bedroom, trash bags in hand and emptying out his boxes.  
“Seriously, Obi-san, these clothes haven’t fit you since you were our age! And there’s blood stains on them, which is gross and also a massive health hazard. Why do you need twelve rubber band balls?!”

Nobody nags quite like Sakura, Sasuke thinks as he puts on his own rubber gloves and a face mask, just in case.

He’s coming into the room right behind Obito, now, and he can already tell that Obito is going to attempt his stupid Sharingan teleportation jutsu to escape the situation.

A knock at the door interrupts him, and Kakashi strides in, Pakuun the nin-dog in his arms. Obito, predictably, diverts all his attention towards Sasuke’s teacher. Sasuke rolls his eyes at Sakura because he’s a kid and love is a bit gross, especially when it involves his uncle/brother/father figure. With Obito successfully occupied, Sasuke and Sakura can actually start to clean.

Three hours later, the apartment is sparkling from cleanliness, and Sasuke exhausted—exhausted like sparring with Lee exhausted. Kakashi and Obito are chatting amicably on the couch, damn them, and Sakura is passed out on the floor. Sasuke sits down beside her, glancing around the small but cozy common room. It’s hard to imagine that in a few hours, Obito’s apartment with have three extra occupants.

Obito is saying something about a Kushina-san, and if she’ll recognize him after all these years, but he’s certain she’ll remember Mina—wait, WHAT?!

Kakashi and Obito and Sakura are all looking at him in surprise. He must’ve said that last part aloud.

“Obito, you know Kushina Uzumaki, the Kushina Uzumaki, head of the Uzumaki clan, and you never thought to tell me this?!”

Obito exchanges a glance with Kakashi.  
“Well, yeah. We knew her back when we were bratty little Genin like you guys. She and Minato-sensei often worked together during the Third Shinobi War, which meant she worked with us too.”  
Obito puts a weird stress on the phrase ‘worked together’ like there’s more to the story there, but Sasuke doesn’t care about that right now because Obito has been keeping very important information from him.

“I can’t believe this. Have you spoken to her recently? Have you met her son or her niece before? Have you seen her use chakra chains before? How about Fuinjutsu?” Sasuke bombards Obito with questions, unaware of the crazed look in his eyes.

Kakashi sighs before speaking.  
“Sasuke, why don’t you calm down for a moment. I know you’ve been really excited about this, but they’re just people.”

Sasuke points a finger at Kakashi, retorting with “Don’t think you’re absolved of blame, Sensei. You are just as guilty of withholding information as Obito is.”

Before Sasuke can go on, he gets nailed in the head by one of Sakura’s sandals, and that’s the end of the conversation.

 

\----

 

Saturday Night.  
Sunset.

Team 7 is lined up by the Konoha Gates in their best athletic gear. They even got Sai to change out of his usual crop tops. On one end, Kakashi has on his standard Jounin vest and fatigues. Obito stands identically dressed up on the other side. It’s strange to see him on duty and professional.

Sasuke is sandwiched between Sakura and Sai in his Uchiha navy blues, embroidered crests and all. He’s outwardly rooted to the spot, but on the inside, he feels like he’s vibrating off the walls.

Gai’s Genin team is here too, since they’re sharing babysitting duties with Team 7.

The Yondaime, the Sandaime, and Tsunade are up front, followed by the Council Elders, select Jounin, and a handful of ANBU guards. Everyone else is sandwiched behind a constructed barrier staffed by more Shinobi, but Sasuke can make out Ino’s platinum blonde hair from the throng of people, and where she goes, the other Genin in his class follow.

They’ve been lined up here for 20 minutes, but it feels like hours. Sasuke isn’t being dramatic here—if he has to wait one more second, he’s going to rip his hair out.

Almost as if by magic (or luck, in Sasuke’s case), the Uzumaki delegation appears from beyond the treeline. They make their measured way down the road and Sasuke’s breath catches in his throat because...  
...because...  
...because they have vivid red hair that’s visible even from this far away, and the sunset reflects off of it so that it looks like blazing fires. Whoever named this area the Land of Fire must not have seen an Uzumaki before.

As they get closer Sasuke’s keen eyes pick apart more details. Their clothes drape elegantly, probably made from silk, and they’re in deep jewel tones with a continuous spiral pattern embroidered into the fabric.

Sasuke and Sakura once dug up a book in the archives that recounted Uzumaki Mito’s entrance into Konoha. The passage that stuck with him was a description on Mito’s supposed headpiece, golden with inset pearls, and her hair wrapped in two buns, explosive tags hanging down. An effective statement through wardrobe, because Mito was every bit the graceful and fearsome Fuinjutsu master she presented herself as.

The Clan Head—Kushina-san, Obito called her—is at the front, and she is the opposite of everything Sasuke imagined Mito must’ve been.

She’s got an aggressive glint to her eye that’s neither wise nor kind, and her robes catch the wind, cutting her an imposing figure.

There are no explosive tags hanging down from her hair, because her hair falls down past her waist in straight tresses. It’s a statement all the same. Only truly powerful Shinobi can wear their hair long, and a color as vivid as the Clan Head’s would paint a massive target on her back.

She’s a survivor, too.

Sasuke finally manages to pull his eyes from her to the other existing Uzumakis, and most of them are elderly or civilians. All the surviving Shinobis of Uzushio were hunted into extinction. The people of this delegation have refugees for decades now.

The two people on either side of Kushina are clearly her son and niece, judging from their age and ninja-trained posture.

The niece has the trademark Uzumaki hair, but hers is choppy and uneven. It works for her though, and Sasuke can picture Ino explaining it now as “very punk-rock, very edgy.” Her eyes are obscured by the glare from her glasses, but her scowl is nasty in a don’t fuck with me sort of way. Sasuke’s jealous, knowing even his own scowl might not measure up.

The son, on the other hand, is an Uzumaki only in face. His similarity to his mother ends there, because his hair is an astonishingly bright blonde, with dark blue eyes visible even from this far away. He’s got three parallel scars on either side of his face like weird whiskers.

Sasuke’s little gay heart almost can’t take it.

This must be the most beautiful person Sasuke’s seen in his entire life.

 

\----

 

Kushina steps up to shake the Yondaime and Sandaime’s hands. She warmly embraces Tsunade, who Sasuke has learned helped arrange this diplomatic mission.

One of the elderly Uzumaki steps toward with a scroll, sealed with a gold ribbon and a wax spiral stamp. Kushina takes it and presents it to the Yondaime.

“A seal, presented as a gift from one leader to another, on behalf of the Uzumaki. I’m sure the genius Yondaime of the village of Konoha would enjoy deciphering it.”

The Yondaime holds it gingery, his face already painted in geeky excitement.

Another elder steps forward with a separate scroll, this one on a weathered parchment with crinkled corners. Kushina handles it with familiarity and an air of pride.

“I would be honored to perform a version of one of our most famous seals, with the Hokage’s permission”

“I would be honored to see any demonstration from Clan Head of the Uzumaki,” the Yondaime answers wryly.

With the approval of the Hokage, Kushina unfurls the scroll, laying it flat upon the gravel. The air grows still with anticipation, so silent that the rustling of Kushina’s robes as she bends down is audible. She carefully lays her hands on the paper, eyes scanning over the painted symbols. Kushina takes a deep breath in. Sasuke, even with his meagre Genin training, can sense when Kushina activates her chakra. It’s a staggering amount of energy, a blazing sensation gathered around the tips of her fingers. Then, Kushina exhales.

And the entire square is filled with light.

As Sasuke’s eyes adjust, he takes in the scene. The entire town square has been filled with transparent red planes of light. They intersect in perpendicular lines, forming an odd grid pattern. One sits not 7 inches out from Sasuke’s face, and he hesitantly raises a kunai towards it. As the metal meets the light, the kunai shoots off sparks, rebounding back in Sasuke’s direction like a powerful magnet. Around the square, other ninja test the energy field in similar ways.

Before Sasuke can experiment anymore, the light winks out, leaving Kushina alone in the middle of the gathering. She’s already wrapping the scroll up. She doesn’t even look winded from the amount of chakra she just expended.

“It’s a reflective chakra barrier, intended for keeping things inside or out. The more energy an attack hits it with, the more powerful the recoil.” Kushina is fully upright by this point, the scroll neatly rolled in one hand. “It’s an old family-kept Fuinjutsu taught to Genin as basic defense. It would be an honor for us to teach it to the Konoha Genin here.”

Obito huffs to himself, muttering something about Jounin neglect, but Sasuke isn’t paying attention. He’s still in awe over the ‘simple demonstration’.

Everything Sasuke’s heard about the Uzumaki clan is true. He thinks of how little of her chakra reserves Kushina used up, how expansive and effective the jutsu was from that alone, the fact that it’s taught as a beginner technique.

Sasuke needs to woo this woman’s son.

 

\----

 

Once all the pomp and ceremony is over, the Uzumakis are ushered off to their respective guides. The elders are meeting with the council, the civilians with prominent business owners and community members of Konoha.

Kushina herself is in deep discussion with the Yondaime, the Sandaime, and Tsunade, the familiarity they have with each other visible in their body language. She will have meetings with all the clan heads later tonight, a fact that Sasuke only knows because Ino bragged about it and Shikamaru and Choji confirmed.

Gai and his team are with Sasuke’s group now, so that they can introduce themselves to Kushina’s son and niece. The two kids approach them, the girl leading the way and Kushina’s son demurely following her. Gai, predictably, is the first one to greet them, a hand already extended and a gleaming white smile plastered on.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki Karin and Uzumaki Naruto. I am Maito Gai, a Jounin of Konoha, and these are my students, Tenten, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Neji.”

As their names are introduced, Gai’s students each perk up. Tenten offers a friendly smile, Lee gives an energetic thumbs up, and Neji acknowledges them with a curt (and snooty) nod.

Kakashi follows suit with his own introductions.  
“I am Hatake Kakashi, Jounin leader of Team Seven along with your host Obito. These are my adorable Genin, Sakura, Sai, and Uchiha Sasuke.”

Sasuke makes eye contact with Naruto, but Naruto’s eyes are fixed on the ground.

Huh.

Karin speaks next, a tinge of irritation in her voice.  
“Yes, well you already know who we are, but the elders have been breathing down my neck about proper customs and etiquette, so I’ll do this whole thing over before I collapse from exhaustion from our incredibly long journey.”

There’s a beat of stunned silence before Karin continues on with a hilariously fake smile. “I am Uzumaki Karin, niece of Clan Head Uzumaki Kushina of the now nonexistent Uzushio,” she says with a monotone voice.

“And this is my cousin,” she gestures at Naruto, “Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina blah blah blah.”

The blonde boy doesn’t say anything, only quickly bowing with his eyes trained on the ground. Everyone else is too caught up in Karin’s performance to notice Naruto’s general disposition except for Sasuke.

Obito cuts the tension by clearing his throat and offering to walk everyone back to his apartment. Everyone agrees, and they set off on a comfortable pace down the road.

Sasuke lets Tenten, Sakura, and Lee ask the questions because he is an Uchiha and it doesn’t look good for him to act curious or excited about some rival clan’s Genin. Neji is in the same boat, and Sai has been specifically warned from asking anything prying, profane or uncomfortable.

“So,” Tenten starts, “about Kushina-san’s demonstration back there. Is that something you can do?”

“Yeah, it's something Kushina makes us learn out of obligation to tradition, despite the fact that it’s really impractical to use on the field.” Karin replies in the same hollow tone of voice--Sasuke’s beginning to suspect she sounds and acts like this all the time.

“Oh,” Tenten breathes out, “Well...what about you Naruto? Do you enjoy using Fuinjutsu? I’m a big fan of seals myself, but Lee here likes Taijutsu, and Neji cheats with his Byakugan.” She says the last part in good nature, as if mocking one of the most powerful clans in Konoha is a common occurrence. If Sasuke had to be on the same team as Neji, he’d probably act similarly.

Naruto’s wide blue eyes shutter back and forth between Karin and Tenten before he finally responds to the question.

“...yeah...”

Sasuke, along with the rest of his team, lean in to hear him, because Naruto’s response is really that quiet. His eyes are already flitting back to the ground, and Sasuke feels a surge of irritation within himself at Naruto’s behavior. It’s similar to Hinata Hyuuga’s mannerisms, but at least on Hinata, it’s somewhat endearing. Naruto is from an incredibly powerful clan known for their mastery over the art of Fuinjutsu and all he can manage on the subject is a one-word response? Upon further examination, Naruto looks like he’s trying to dissolve into his own beautifully died robes without success. His golden hair reflects the soft orange lamplight, and his big eyes are almost scrunched shut.

“Can you speak up, please? I’d rather not strain my ears on small talk,” Sasuke snaps.

He can hear Sakura’s scandalized gasp and Karin’s snort of laughter, and he knows that Kakashi and Obito’s glares are both burning holes into the back of his shirt right now.

Naruto’s eyes get watery as he processes the comment and he sniffles out a pitiful “sorry” before looking back down at his own feet.

Sakura tries to direct another question at Karin, but Sasuke’s zoning them out.

He’s too focused on the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and back of his throat. A voice that sounds suspiciously like his shitty, homicidal older brother whispers “give it time, a first impression is just that,” but Sasuke’s already shutting down the voice and clenching his fists so hard that his nails break skin.

 

\----

 

They get Naruto and Karin settled in without too much fuss, and Gai and his team leave for the night, promising to pick up Karin tomorrow morning. Sakura and Sai head home not long after. They’ll be back to help make breakfast tomorrow, and Sasuke briefly reminisces about a time when he wasn’t attached at the hip to two nosy teammates. Kakashi is still here, which Sasuke is mad about, because Sasuke gave up his room to Karin and Naruto, meaning he’ll have to crash on Obito’s floor for the foreseeable future. Kakashi staying the night means gross stuff that Sasuke would rather gouge his precious Uchiha eyes out than witness, especially when he’s going to be in the same room.

Karin and Naruto have already retreated to Sasuke’s room with less than a full sentence spoken between them. Sasuke tries not to feel too irritated with their behavior, but he was raised with manners before the massacre, and it's hard not to take this as an insult. The guest room is still empty, so Obito and Kakashi will be up until Kushina comes back. It would be nice to stay up to catch a glimpse of the woman, but Sasuke’s got a full day ahead of him. As Sakura likes to tease, he needs his “beauty sleep”.

 

\----

 

Sasuke’s an early riser. He doesn’t appreciate the fact that for some reason, everyone is already awake and piled into the kitchen by the time he drags his ass out of bed at the tender hour of 6:30 A.M.

Gai’s team (thankfully) hasn’t gotten here yet. Sakura won’t get up for another hour yet, which means Sai won’t be here either. The three Uzumakis are all sitting at Obito’s worn kitchen table. The kids are both rumpled and silent, but Kushina looks energetic and polished, and she’s having an animated conversation with Obito about the best ramen places in the fire nation.

Kakashi is beside the door Sasuke just entered from, dressed in a wrinkled Jounin uniform. He must have spent the night here. If they did anything while Sasuke was sleeping, Konoha is going to find themselves short of two Jounin.

Kushina’s conversation trails off as she notices the newcomer in the room. She gets up and extends her hand across the table in Sasuke’s direction.

Stunned, and still a bit sleepy, Sasuke shakes it with what he hopes is a firm and confident grip.

“This must be the baby cousin I've heard so much about,” Kushina says with a glimmer of mirth in her eyes.

Sasuke snaps his head around at Obito, who’s already looking a bit guilty.

“Yes, this is Sasuke. He’s my third cousin once removed or something like that, but family is family, right? We’ve been cohabitating together for about seven years now and I’d say it’s a pretty good arrangement.”

Kushina grins right back. “My relation to Karin is actually quite similar. She doesn’t like me saying it because it’s embarrassing or something, but she’s the daughter I never had.” As she speaks, she grabs the half-asleep Karin by the neck, bringing her in for a suffocating hug. Karin wrestles with her for a second before pulling herself free, but Kushina doesn’t seem to mind. Naruto doesn’t even react.

“And, you, Sasuke, I’m sure are much wiser than Obito or Kakashi were at your age,” Kushina says.

“I wouldn’t know too much about that. Obito doesn’t talk about his Genin days, but if he and Kakashi are still this stupid today, then they must have been absolute idiots when they were thirteen,” Sasuke says dryly, feeling vindictive over his guardian and teacher’s secret sleepover.

Kushina’s bellowing laughter is only masked by the ringing in Sasuke’s ears as Obito smacks him on the back of the head with a frying pan.  
“Maybe,” Kakashi interjects, “we should move on to less volatile small-talk.”

 

\----

 

They’ve assembled themselves at Training Ground 8 by the 11 in the morning. The sun is at the perfect angle to block Sasuke’s eyesight. It’s pissing him off almost as much as this whole Uzumaki situation, and Obito left with Kushina for the Hokage’s offices this morning so there’s no one to calm him down.

Karin’s grumpy attitude is a stark contrast to the cheerful energy of Gai’s team, but Sasuke would almost prefer Miss Holier-Than-Thou and bright green spandex to his own team’s dynamic. Sakura is at her worst, badgering a silent and uncomfortable Naruto with deeply personal questions. Sai’s blatant ogling of the blonde boy isn’t helping matters. Sasuke, for his part, keeps up his stoic and impassive Uchiha glare—it’s second nature by this point.

Kakashi and Gai finally pull away from their two-man huddle and Kakashi cheerfully claps his hands together, drawing everyone's attention towards the two Jounin.

“Now that everyone is up and fully refreshed from last night, we think it would be a good time for some sparring demonstrations.” Kakashi’s visible eye is crinkled in amusement. It’s suspicious as hell.

Gai gestures to Naruto and Karin.  
“Kushina informed us that you two are Genin-level, about on par with our students. You have quite different fighting styles than Konoha trained ninjas, and honorable battle is the best way to share experience and knowledge with allies and friends!”

Karin looks decidedly unimpressed, and Naruto’s mouth is pressed into a thin line.

“We’ll demonstrate with Lee and Neji first, and then you kids can choose your sparring partners,” Gai continues, unaffected by or oblivious to the Uzumaki side eye he’s receiving.

Lee gives a whoop of excitement and Neji sighs but steps into the grass clearing anyways. Everyone else moves back, giving them room to work.

Gai calls off the rules and counts them down, and Neji and Lee start rushing at each other.

Sasuke is familiar with both their fighting styles, has trained with Gai and his students on multiple occasions, but it seems like everytime he sees them, they get stronger and faster.

Sasuke knows that Gai puts on emphasis on Taijutsu, that Lee has to be phenomenal at it because it's his only strategy, but it’s still impressive and intimidating to see it all on display. Neji doesn’t need the training, not when he has Hyuuga clan techniques and Byakugan at his disposal, but he excels in Taijutsu anyway. Sasuke feels a tinge of jealousy at this revelation and resolves to run more laps around the village—he has yet to awaken his Sharingan, and he only has Obito to rely on for learning Uchiha techniques.

On the field, Neji blocks a brutal kick from Lee. Neji is a graceful wall, moving the least amount possible to conserve energy—he’s got his Byakugan activated to keep up with his opponent’s quick movements, but any techniques involving blocking chakra pathways with be useless here.

If Neji is a stone, unmovable and steady, Lee is an explosion. He’s everywhere at once, darting in and out of Neji’s range before he can get hit by a Hyuuga seal. For every one hit Neji manages to land, Lee lands three and each successive one hits harder.

It’s pure athleticism.

Sasuke feels a wave of respect wash over him. As odd as Lee is with his mini-Gai act and his childish naivete, he’s undoubtedly one of the hardest working Shinobi in Konoha. He took an insurmountable obstacle, the absence of chakra, and turned it into an asset. He’s fully committed to the art of Taijutsu, and everyone knows he’ll just get stronger with age.

To his left, Sasuke can see Sakura eyeing Lee with that same awe and fascination.

About five minutes pass before Neji and Lee end up armlocked and trying to outflex each other, and Gai steps in and calls it a tie. It’s a merciful jurisdiction—one of them would have been the clear winner if Gai had let them tussle it out for thirty seconds more, but Sasuke doesn’t know the team dynamics here. Bruised egos might be an ongoing problem for Neji and Lee, and this is Gai’s way of avoiding it.

Sasuke used to have a bit of an ego too, but the core of his Uchiha pride was ripped away when his brother murdered the rest of his family. The thin veneer he wears over that is still going strong, but Obito’s goofiness and Kakashi’s lazy genius and even Sakura’s pushiness are wearing away at that too. Pretty soon, Sasuke will be smiling at babies and old ladies when he walks down the street. Good God.

After some congratulations from Gai and a few pointers from the rest of them, Neji and Lee sit down as Karin gets up.

“You choose who you want to spar with. Same rules and we’ll debrief afterwards. No pressure!” Gai says supportingly.

Karin nods in agreement and beneath her glasses, her eyes narrow as she sizes up the rest of them up. She considers Tenten for a moment before settling on Sai—Sai who has been staring at her butt for a considerable part of the day so far.

“This’ll be good,” Sakura whispers to Sasuke.

They bow on the field, and Gai’s counting them off.

The thing is, Sai is somewhat of a seal master within Konoha. Granted, his seals are incredibly specific and the trick to dismissing the Jutsu is easy once you learn it, but to a first-time opponent, they’re intimidating as hell. Also, it's nearly impossible to avoid staining your clothes while fighting them. Asshole.

For whatever tricks Karin has up her sleeve, she’s in for a nasty surprise.

Sai is already brandishing a blank scroll and a brush, his artistry at work in deft and even strokes. Karin has jumped back a bit herself to fiddle with some tags, but she’s watching Sai carefully, dividing concentration between her opponent and what is probably a complex seal.

An inky black lion springs forth from Sai’s paper, familiar to one that Sasuke sparred with not a few days ago. Karin jumps back, barely missing a hit from its massive paw. She’s got average speed for a Shinobi and mediocre reflexes, but she hasn’t done anything with her tags yet, so Sasuke’s holding out hope for something impressive.

He’s not disappointed. Karin throws a kunai and tag at the large target, and the whole lion seems to collapse into itself upon impact. It’s not clear whether the tags are based on timer, impact, or some other trigger, but it looked like an inverted version of an exploding tag. If so, proximity to the opponent wouldn’t matter, and that’s such a simple, yet effective seal. Looking at the ground where the lion was standing, Sasuke doesn’t see a drop of ink. The tags are like tiny black holes, like he once read about in an old scroll on the stars.

Sai isn’t too distressed, though, and he sends out three more lions and a six-foot-long eagle in his first lion’s stead. Karin’s going to need to be faster or change her strategy if she wants to avoid being swarmed by Sai’s paintings.

She dispels about ten more ink monsters before letting out a yell of frustration, and through the throng of animals, Sasuke sees Karin flash through some simple hand signs. There’s no effect around her, but there’s a flash of light across the field where Sai is kneeling.

Purple chains wrap around his body, rendering Sai incapable of creating anymore drawings. The chains are translucent and humming with energy—chakra chains, Sasuke marvels, a wholly unique bloodline limit to the Uzumakis.

Karin finishes off the rest of Sai’s monsters, using up the rest of her tags before sprinting towards Sai. Even with her attention diverted, the chains do not waiver under Sai’s struggles. Karin holds a kunai out at Sai’s restrained body. This match is clearly over.

Lee and Sakura burst into applause, and Sasuke can barely resist doing the same. Ignoring them, Karin dispels the chakra chains, and steps onto the corner of Sai’s scroll.

Which bursts into an explosion of ink, thoroughly soaking both Karin and Sai.

A moment of stunned silence across the training ground before Karin lets out a scream. Sai grins at her, his teeth pearly white against the black ink. Kakashi, not wanting an international incident to occur on his watch, starts to step in to apologize for Sai’s behavior, but Karin beats him to it.

“I would have appreciated some advance warning about potential messiness during sparring, but I did wear clothing intended for training, so I guess it's an acceptable loss from my limited wardrobe. If you’ll excuse me, I would like to return the apartment to try to wash this out before it stains my skin, too.” Karin says with a steely voice.

Neji and Lee get up to accompany her, and Kakashi dismisses Sai to clean himself up once the three other Genin leave the training area. Sakura laughs a bit at Sai’s expense, knowing he’ll have to do pack-carrying duty on their next mission as punishment for his behavior today. 

This leaves four Genin and two Jounin in the clearing, counting Sasuke.

Kakashi fixes him with a disappointed I’m-counting-on-you-not-to-fuck-this-up look, and Sasuke realizes he has the perfect opportunity to evaluate the remaining Uzumaki. Let’s see him try and hide behind his cousin now!

Sasuke gets up and makes a show of deciding who he wants to spar with, even though everyone can guess the answer to his dilemma.

Only Naruto refrains from looking up at Sasuke, instead twiddling his hands in his lap.

This is the final straw for Sasuke, whose frustration has been growing all day.  
He levels a finger at Naruto, leaning into his personal space the same way he’s seen Kiba Inuzuka do when he’s intimidating someone.

“Get up, Goldilocks. We’re sparring.”

Sasuke can see Kakashi tensing out of the corner of his eye, but it’s Naruto that speaks first. His blue eyes catch Sasuke’s, and Sasuke feels his heart thumping in his chest.  
“I’m sorry. I’ll have to pass on your offer,” He says in an even tone.

 

\----

 

There are universal rules in the Shinobi world, ones that the villages follow to avoid complete carnage and savagery. The culture from land to land may vary, but there’s etiquette that very Genin must learn. Take diplomatic missions, for example. If a visiting dignitary and active Shinobi from another village is challenged to a spar by their host, it’s expected that they will agree. It’s a show of faith between two nations, an acknowledgement of the Ninja creed that all nations share. Granted, there are exceptions, instances where a Shinobi can refuse. A Kage would never accept a challenge from a Jounin because they are so far above them in rank and status. Clan Heads can do the same.

By extension of this logic, Naruto is indirectly stating he’s above Sasuke.

It’s insulting and belittling and Sasuke can’t do a damn thing about the rejection.

His ears get warm and red and his eyes narrow into cold slits and he doesn’t know whether he wants to scream or cry because this isn’t the sort of thing that happens to Uchihas.

If Sasuke were to look at Naruto, he’d see the boy’s hands shaking in his lap and hear the shuddering breaths of a person on the verge of tears.  
Sasuke isn’t looking at Naruto right now. He’s a bit preoccupied (understandably).

Thankfully, before Sasuke can have a complete and public meltdown, one of the Hokage’s messenger hawks swoops down from the sky.

It lands neatly on Kakashi’s arm, a mission scroll between its talons.

Kakashi quickly unfurls the scroll, his one visible eye scanning the text. He motions in Sasuke’s direction before addressing everyone in the clearing.

“It seems Sasuke and I have been summoned to the Hokage’s office for an urgent mission. I’m sorry about the interruption, but I’m leaving the rest of you Genin in Gai’s capable hands.”

Kakashi vanishes in a swirl of leaves and Sasuke takes off after him, grateful for the distraction.

 

\----

 

Waiting outside the Hokage’s office, Sasuke shifts uncomfortably in his hard, wooden chair. Kakashi, sitting across from, Sasuke, lifts his eye from the porn he’s reading, and Sasuke curses the Hokage’s administrative office for putting him in this situation. He curses the Hokage’s office for a lot of things actually, starting with assigning Obito’s boyfriend as his Jounin-Sensei, and ending with this entire Uzumaki ordeal.

Kakashi reads him like a book. He’s probably one of three people in Konoha who can understand Sasuke, who’s been there since the massacre, because where Obito goes, Kakashi follows.

There were a lot of doctor appointments in the months after the incident, too many for Obito to keep up with, not when he was also working as an active Jounin and former student of the Hokage. Kakashi ended up taking Sasuke to a lot of those appointments instead. Sasuke wasn’t stupid then and he isn’t stupid now—he knew Kakashi was retired from the ANBU, that he took an indefinite leave from service the moment Obito adopted Sasuke. He was as much as a weirdo then as he is now, but behind his embarrassing and public porn addiction and his slumped posture and his bored affectation, he was a pillar in Sasuke’s uncertain childhood.

Kakashi knew when to be serious in front Sasuke, and when to be silly. He took notes of the anger-management techniques they taught Sasuke, knew how to spot the signs of an oncoming panic attack. He spent his fair share of time talking Sasuke down, then dragging Sasuke out for ice cream neither of them really wanted to eat afterwards.

The point is, here in this dinky little waiting room outside of the Hokage’s office, Kakashi pays attention.

There’s something like understanding in his face.

Sasuke does not want to talk about this afternoon’s embarrassment, not when they’re right outside of the Hokage’s office and there might be Council Elders or Uzumakis lurking about.

He’s gripping his pants so tight that the fabric is tearing.

Kakashi takes Sasuke’s small hands in his gloved ones, getting at face level with the boy.

“Count backwards from ten. Deep breaths.”

Sasuke does as he’s told before he acts rashly.

He sits in silence for a little bit. Kakashi is still holding his hands.

He’s not going to tell Kakashi that the rejection hurt, but it did. It hurt because he was enamoured with the idea of Uzumaki Naruto and his heritage, and for him to get treated like trash was humiliating and maybe heartbreaking in an over-dramatic hormonal teenager way. People never turn him down. He’s the last Uchiha in the traditional sense of the word. He graduated top of his class, he’s got one of the most powerful Jounin in the village as his teacher. But getting rejected felt like he was six again, and small and helpless and foolish in front of his beloved older brother.  
His brother, who killed their entire family and left Sasuke alive for whatever reason. Sasuke was in shock, but he remembers the way Itachi flicked his forehead—demeaning and cruel, a familiar teasing gesture warped by unimaginable horror. Itachi didn’t even give him a chance to fight back. And Sasuke questions everyday why he’s still alive when everyone else is dead. And the only reason he can come up with is that Itachi thought it was below him—that Sasuke will never be a threat worthy of acknowledging.

But he won’t tell any of that to Kakashi. He thinks Kakashi might understand anyways.

They sit there for a while longer, until the Hokage opens the door and beckons them in. If he notices anything odd about Sasuke, he refrains from commenting on it.

Once they’re settled in the office, the Hokage pulls out a mission scroll.

“I hate to do this to you two, especially since you already have an ongoing mission in Konoha with the Uzumakis, but you’ve been requested specifically,” The Hokage says.

“Both of us? What sort of mission is this?” Kakashi replies, his voice sharp with suspicion.

“It’s a diplomatic mission to speak with the Fire Daimyo. It seems you made a rather good impression last time you were there, Kakashi.”

The Hokage’s eyes flicker to Sasuke.  
“And as for you, it’s customary to send a Clan representative for formal meetings, and I figured as Kakashi’s student, you wouldn’t mind going.”

The Hokage’s right, of course. This is an incredible opportunity because any sort of meeting with the Daimyo is B-Rank, at least. The Daimyo is Konoha’s most powerful employer.

“You still haven’t said what we’re doing,” Kakashi points out, and Sasuke wants to pinch him because this isn’t the sort of thing you say to a Kage. They say jump, you ask how high.

The Hokage doesn’t mind the attitude, though.

“He wants an update on the Uzumaki situation. I also need you to deliver some gifts to him on behalf of the Uzumakis.”

The Hokage procures an ornately wrapped box from underneath his desk, and passes it to Sasuke, who holds it gingerly.

“You leave tomorrow at dawn. Good luck!”

And just like that, their meeting is over. The Hokage is a rather busy man.

 

\----

 

Kakashi takes Sasuke out for dinner in celebration, figuring they might as well have fun tonight since they’ll be working tomorrow. Sasuke talks Kakashi into going the new vegan place next to Ichiraku. Vegan because Tsunade used to tell him nutrition horror stories. Tsunade, of course, is a big hypocrite with her aggressive drinking habits, but something about the phrase “your body is a temple” stuck with Sasuke.

The walk is short and there’s a comfortable silence between the two of them.

When they get to the restaurant, they wait outside for seating. While Kakashi is analyzing the menu the way old people always do, Sasuke looks out over the rest of the block. The sun is low in the sky, and the street is quiet as people head home for the day. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the relatively empty interior of Ichiraku Ramen. The new restaurant must be taking a lot of their business.

Upon closer inspection, there’s a familiar face sitting at the bar in Ichiraku. The boy’s back is turned away from Sasuke, but he would recognize that golden hair glinting off the sunset anywhere. Naruto is alone, and Sasuke wants to laugh because he almost feels sorry for the boy, with his slumped posture and his feet that don’t touch the ground. He stands out in the brightly colored stall, a true outsider in Konoha.

Something vindictive in Sasuke takes pleasure at this, but before he can confront the boy, Kakashi and his names are being called to be seated.

 

\----

 

If Sasuke dies tonight, he’s content to have this be his last supper. The vegetables are fresh and lightly seasoned, letting their actual flavor shine through. Kakashi seems less happy about his dinner, with how he’s pushing the tomatoes around on his plate. He catches Sasuke eyeing his plate and offers them in a rare act of generosity.

It takes them a while to pay and go, and Kakashi drags Sasuke around the now empty streets of Konoha for an hour. Something about “getting lost on the road of life”, or whatever.

Sasuke ignores the twinge of disappointment he feels when he sees Naruto is no longer inside Ichiraku. He’ll see the other boy back at Obito’s tonight anyways.

 

\----

 

They get back to the apartment after doing some shopping and packing at Kakashi’s apartment. It’s late enough that Sasuke thinks Kushina might be back.

His suspicions are confirmed when he walks past the guest bedroom on his way to brush his teeth.

There are two voices angrily whispering, except they're not that quiet because they're audible through the cheap wooden door. It’s not eavesdropping if Sasuke isn’t actively trying to spy.

He can pick out a woman’s voice—Kushina’s—and a younger masculine voice. He realizes with shock that it’s Naruto, except he’s kinda loud.

“—is so stupid! I don’t know why they’re making me do this.”

“I know how you feel, Karin told me about today, but it’s not my decision, and it makes sense for you to play nice,” Kushina’s tired voice replies.

Naruto growls angrily, retorting, “I’m just so sick of the fact that you won’t stand up for me! Stop treating me like a stray dog and start treating me like your son, because I refuse to be dressed up and put on display!”

“Is that what you’re angry about? I’ve apologized multiple times now. Karin has forgiven me but I don’t understand why you won—” 

Naruto cuts her off quickly.  
“Karin’s situation wasn’t the same as mine! And maybe I am mad, but that’s not what this about. You made me a promise that things would be different here, that we could get a fresh start, but so far, this is the same as every other shitty town we’ve stayed in!”

“It will be better. Give it time and you’ll come to like it.” Kushina says in a patient voice.

It does nothing to appease Naruto, who yells, “It would be fine if the Elders could back off! I’d be doing fantastically if they weren’t up in my business all the time. And you just let it happen! To your own son!”

Kushina starts to respond, her voice quiet against Naruto’s rage, but Sasuke is already storming off down the hallway.

That night when he lays in bed, he contemplates the situation. He thought Naruto was some shy kid without a backbone before this afternoon. Kind but bland like Hinata. Someone he could grow to love in time, because the benefits of an Uzumaki marriage would outweigh the cons. But the conversation tonight really cements his unfavorable impression.

Naruto is an entitled asshole. He speaks in one-word responses because the people of Konoha aren’t worthy of his wisdom or attention, just like every other village, apparently. What kind of person talks to their own mother like that? And Kushina put up with it, so she’s probably used to these little tantrums. Sasuke’s betting that the Uzumaki Elders tried to step in and correct the brat’s behavior. If this is how Naruto acts all the time, then Sasuke can understand Karin’s default attitude.

Sasuke knows privilege. It’s what drove the Uchiha to banish Obito when he was still a child, why Neji and Hinata aren’t allowed to hang out alone with the civilian-born Genin like Sakura and Lee. It’s gross and stupid and Sasuke can’t believe that it exists within the Uzumaki clan. Naruto may be physically striking, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts and whatever Naruto has in there is worthless.

Sasuke’s glad he’ll be out on a mission for the next week. Whatever hope he had for a better future died with Uzumaki Naruto’s black heart. It’s okay though. Sasuke is used to disappointment. He’ll survive this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, about that cliffhanger. I've got two chapters planned of about equal length to wrap this up. The next one should be posted within the next two weeks if I don't get swamped with midterms before that. I'm prospider on tumblr if anyone wants to kick my ass into writing mode.


	2. Mission Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished this one quicker than I thought I would. It's a bit shorter and takes a breather from the main plot.

Sasuke and Kakashi have been on the road for hours now, and it’s not even lunch time yet. They left the looming gates of Konoha behind them at the ass crack of dawn this morning, with only three Shinobi guards and a bleary-eyed Obito to bid them goodbye.

The spontaneous nature of the mission has left Sasuke little time to contemplate it, but here, walking down the worn dirt road in comfortable silence, sun at his back and birds chirping in the canopy overhead, Sasuke feels genuinely excited.

It’s his first B-rank mission, just him and Kakashi, and they’re going to meet the Fire Daimyo!

It’s exactly the kind of mission that Sasuke needs to clear his head from the Uzumaki debacle back in Konoha. He’s glad that Sakura and Sai are staying behind to watch the spoiled brat. He knows if he had to be around that for one more day, Sasuke would do something might regret.

Even thinking about Goldilocks makes Sasuke want to destroy the Uzumaki-embellished parcel he’s carrying, silly as hatred for an inanimate object might seem.

Sasuke sings the alphabet to himself, his nerves cooling by the time he gets to ‘u’.

 

\----

 

They make good time on the first day, and Kakashi calls for a camp once the sun has dipped behind the tree line. They should be in the capital by tomorrow afternoon if they keep up the pace.

Once they've established a perimeter and found a suitable spot to lay out their packs, Kakashi wordlessly goes about making a fire.

“I could make that with Katon. It would be self-contained but hot enough to burn the tinder,” Sasuke offers in a neutral voice, gesturing at the pile of sticks. He might be trying to impress Kakashi now that he has his teacher all to himself. Not that Sasuke would admit it aloud.

Kakashi hums thoughtfully under his breath, then continues puttering about their fire pit.

So that’s a no.

You can’t blame Sasuke for trying. He resigns himself to a quiet night under the stars. There aren’t any special one-on-one lessons to be had here, not without the rest of his team. It’s fair of Kakashi to avoid favoritism towards his partner’s ward, but Sasuke feels let down all the same.

Once Kakashi has successfully lit the fire, he turns towards Sasuke. His eye is glinting in the firelight with something like pity. Sasuke hates when people look at him like that.

“You didn’t learn much about Fuinjutsu in the academy, did you?” Kakashi prods.

Sasuke tenses up, surprised at the the question.

“Only the basics. Premade exploding tags and so on,” Sasuke responds hesitantly. He doesn't know where Kakashi is going with this.

Kakashi tuts and adjusts himself into a more alert position.

“This is the problem with Konoha's education system. We expect our children to know how to fight and survive without teaching them what they actually need to know. Throwing a kunai with perfect accuracy won’t save you from starving or bleeding or freezing to death.”

Sasuke doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nods. This is uncharacteristic of Kakashi—both the extensive talking and the outright criticism of the Shinobi system.

Kakashi seems to take this as approval to continue because he says, “Tsunade revolutionized the world of medical Jutsu. She’s the reason why we have a medic-nin assigned to every active-duty team.”

Sasuke did not, in fact, know this. It’s hard to picture Tsunade as a fearsome warrior and world-renowned doctor when all he ever sees her do is drink sake and beat the shit out of Obito.

“But,” Kakashi amends, “imagine if we actually taught our soldiers more than the most basic first aid. One in three Shinobi deaths are a result of post-battle complications—they survive the fight, but they don’t survive the injuries. At least, not long enough to make it to a doctor. So many accidents could be avoided. Our mortality rate would instantly drop.”

There’s a haunted look in Kakashi’s eye now, startlingly similar to the one Obito gets on bad days. Sasuke thinks about the framed picture of the third teammate on their wall, of the scars that cover half of Obito's body. He wonders if Obito or Kakashi will ever tell him the full story there, or if it’s the kind of thing that should stay buried.

Kakashi finally notices Sasuke’s discomfort and pivots the conversation before it can get more intense.

“Well, Fuinjutsu is similar to medical training in many ways. It’s easy to prepare in advance, saves active use of chakra, and can make the difference between life or death when utilized properly. But you have to know what you're doing.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes at this. He doesn’t need Kakashi to rub it in his face that the silver-haired Jounin was the genius disciple of the genius Yondaime, who was a student of Jiraiya the mighty Sanin, who was a student of the genius Sandaime and so on. Sasuke knows he’s broken the chain, but he has enough insecurities and inferiority complexes within his own family history already. He can leave the genius tradition to Sakura with her dusty books and her perfect chakra control.

Ignoring Sasuke’s attitude, Kakashi procures a notebook and a pen from his dark green vest.

“The theory is better demonstrated through drawings and practice than lecture, but this is just a crash course.”

Sasuke is leaning in close before he can even think about it.

 

\----

 

The next day, Sasuke keeps his head bowed towards the little notebook as they travel down the path. He’s furiously scribbling notes into it as Kakashi keeps his ears and eye open for any potential signs of danger.

Last night’s impromptu lesson was inspiring. Enlightening. Life-changing.

Fuinjutsu is based off of the same principles of chakra theory as Ninjutsu or Genjutsu or even Taijutsu, but it’s both more straightforward and complex.

There are no wishy-washy explanations for Fuinjutsu, no incompetent academy teachers saying you just have to feel it in your body. It’s concrete and exacting and has the potential to hurt you with every minor miscalculation.

The basics are pretty self-explanatory. Instead of relating it to a deeper connection to nature like most chakra theory explanations, Kakashi described it as the power of diametric opposites. Nature follows either order or entropy, and Fuinjutsu deals in these two concepts. Odds for disorder and evens for order. It’s versatile, too, because it can be conveyed through almost any written means—symbols, mandalas, kanji, even things abstract as Sai’s drawings.

Once the drawing is completed, a catalyst is required in the form of chakra. This is where it gets tricky.

Fuinjutsu can be activated upon use (things like exploding tags or Kushina’s barrier demonstration the other day) or it can be pre-charged.

Adding chakra while creating the Fuinjutsu is the better option—it saves energy and time on the battlefield, and it enables a Shinobi to perform massive chakra releases with no adverse effects.

The danger with option two involves creating the Fuinjutsu. Adding chakra to an unstable or incorrect seal can cause it to blow up in the creator’s face. Literally.

It’s so much more versatile than anything Sasuke has learned in the other disciplines. Kakashi showed him some beginner’s level seals, and he already has a thousand ideas for how to improve those.

 

\----

 

They arrive in the capital city around in the early evening, and there are Samurai and Shinobi guards alike waiting at the gates for them. The Hokage must have sent advance warning to the Daimyo that they were coming.

As they step foot inside the gates so similar to Konoha’s own, Sasuke gasps, eyes up and widened in shock.

He has never been to the capital of the Land of Fire before, but he always imagined it to be similar to Konoha minus the Hokage Monument and all the Shinobi running around.

Oh, how wrong Sasuke is. The only familiar sight here is the red tiled roofs that run across all the buildings. This place is a sprawling maze of cobblestone roads and dark, narrow alleyways. The horizon is blotted out by an endless mass of structures, with the Daimyo’s palace rising above it all.

It seems miles away, which will give Sasuke plenty of time to take in his surroundings.

Beside him, Kakashi’s back is ramrod straight, his posture at attention. Sasuke scrambles to mimic this. He clenches his fists to keep them from shaking in nervousness.

 

\----

 

Sasuke’s glad they made good time today, because it takes them two hours to get through all the security checks in the palace. They still haven’t been granted an audience with him, but they're sitting in his opulent waiting room now. Deja Vu, much?

A creaking noise comes from an ornate golden doorway across the hallway, and a harried looking woman pokes her head out.

“Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke? Follow me please.”

They get up, brushing their pants off from the past two days of travel. The woman walks swiftly down a dark hallway cushioned by a red plush rug. She does not stop to check if they are following her, but Kakashi keeps pace with his long legs. Sasuke has to jog to catch up. He clutches the Hokage’s package harder, grateful for something to hold on to.

The woman comes to a halt in front of them, and she fumbles in the dark for a second before pushing at a heavy door. The sliver of light through the double doors expands until it’s illuminating the whole hallway.

They step into a cavernous room, awash in gold and red hues. There’s a wall of fire opposite of Kakashi and Sasuke. An ancient man sits in front of the flames, his body drowning in embroidered black robes. An ancient man, Sasuke realizes, who is the most powerful man in all of Fire Country.

Kakashi bows sharply, Sasuke following suit.

The Daimyo waves his hand, not bothering to look them in the eye.

The woman introduces them but remains in the room beside the Daimyo. Sasuke can spot at least three guards hidden in the shadows about the room, but they’re surprisingly distant from the old man. Sasuke’s seen how fast Kakashi moves. He thinks if a proper Shinobi wanted to kill the man, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Ninja are trained to be lethal even when unarmed, after all.

The Daimyo tilts his head towards his assistant.

“Bring the package to me,” he says in a scratchy voice.

The woman turns back towards them, striding across the room and snatching the box from Sasuke’s arms before he can react, no pleases or thank-yous or anything. She returns to the Daimyo’s side and sets the package in his hands.

Sasuke hates the way his hands curl possessively over the lovely spiral wrapping, but he’s careful to keep his face neutral. The Daimyo fingers the box for a few seconds before acknowledging his assistant.

“They are dismissed. Give them the scroll for the Hokage on the way out.”

And just like that, the woman escorts them out of the room.

No words are exchanged, and the woman passes the Hokage’s scroll to Kakashi before rushing back off into the hallway. For all the security checkpoints and waiting rooms they went through on the way in, it’s surprisingly easy to leave the palace. 

 

That night when Sasuke lays in bed in the inn they’re staying at, he frowns to himself. Kakashi has been pretty quiet the entire time they’ve been in the capital city. It’s a sharp contrast to his talkative and open behavior from last. Even his usual demeanor is friendlier and more relaxed than this silver haired robot.

But that’s not what’s troubling him most. Meeting with the Daimyo was strange, to put it nicely. Sasuke thinks of every time he’s had an audience with the Hokage. He thinks about the friendly front-desk Shinobi and the small, cozy waiting room. There’s always ANBU Guards in the Hokage’s office, despite the fact that the Hokage could handle any threat as well as the rest of his soldiers. The Hokage actually addresses his visitors, greets them with a respectful attitude and a warm smile.

Here in this massive, impersonal city, Sasuke imagines the Hokage as the exact opposite of the Fire Daimyo, who didn’t even deign to speak with them. This is the man they’re supposed to be serving?

 

\----

 

Thankfully, they leave at dawn the next day. The moment they’re out of sight of the capital gates, Kakashi reverts to his normal behavior. Sasuke refrains from commenting on the nature of their mission, worried he’ll say something he’ll regret. Instead, he occupies his mind with the thought of Fuinjutsu.

You're just compensating for the fact that that you’ll never awaken your Sharingan, a little voice whispers to Sasuke in the back of his head.

Sasuke tries to ignore the thought as best he can, but it’s a fear that’s been eating away at him for years now.

He’s told it to Obito, on the bad nights or after a frustrating training session, and Obito tells him the same story every time.

You’re young yet, Obito says with a crooked smile that pulls his scars tight. I didn’t awaken mine till I was twelve and that was during a war! Just give it time.

But Sasuke’s afraid. Obito did awaken his eventually, but it wasn’t enough to save his teammate or win over his Clan’s approval. Sasuke thinks that by the time he gets his Sharingan, it’ll be too late to learn Clan techniques with it.

Or worse yet, it will remain dormant forever. Maybe Itachi saw this all those years ago and spared Sasuke for it.

So for now, Sasuke will do what he can with Ninjutsu and Taijutsu and Genjutsu. Focusing on Fuinjutsu will hold him over until he gets his Sharingan, because Sasuke can’t imagine the alternative.

 

\----

 

It’s late afternoon when Kakashi notices it.

Sasuke is still deeply embroiled in his own thoughts when Kakashi jerks his head up, but the sudden movement is enough to grab Sasuke’s attention.

Oh.

The birds have stopped chirping.

They’re alone on the road here and deep into the forest, about three hours from a village in either direction. It's the perfect place for an ambush.  
Kakashi catches Sasuke's eye, nodding at the boy. His posture is still relaxed but he’s started to slide his hand towards one of the pouches on his Jounin vest.

Sasuke catches the nonverbal cue and reaches for his own kunai.

But before he can get a firm grip on his weapon, a rumble shakes the earth below his feet and there is a man standing before him, kicking him in the torso and down the road away from Kakashi.

Sasuke recovers from the hit on instinct and adrenaline alone and when he turns to face his opponent, he sees a jagged rock structure bisecting the road. Kakashi must be on the other side because he’s nowhere in sight, and there’s two angry-looking Shinobi standing before Sasuke. Their forehead protectors have the symbol of Iwa with a slash through it.

Rogue ninja, then.

The one who knocked Sasuke back a moment ago smirks at Sasuke, and turns towards his companion, speaking loudly enough for Sasuke to hear.

“Look at how lucky we are, just stumbling across the last Uchiha out here on the road like this. The bounty for bagging this brat could have us set for life.”

This is the first time Sasuke’s heard about a bounty, but he’s not too surprised. The Sharingan is a powerful weapon—rare too now, thanks to his brother.

If Sasuke’s captured, they'll rip his eyes out and leave his rotting corpse for the birds to eat. Maybe even do experiments on him like the Sanin Orochimaru before he was banished from Konoha.

He clutches his kunai tighter, steeling his nerves for the fight to come.

The Rogue-nin haven’t made any moves, probably trying to taunt him into something reckless. This is their first mistake.

Sasuke flashes through the hand signs for Katon and inhales bigger than he’s ever inhaled before. He exhales a fireball so massive that obscures it his vision and scorches his face. But Sasuke isn’t done there, and under the cover of the scorching red flames, throws out three kunai to where he hopes the Shinobi are hiding.

The flames dispel quickly, though, without any fuel, and when the air is clear, Sasuke spots the Shinobi pushed back against their Jutsu rock formation.

The first Rogue-nin, the one who taunted him earlier, looks unperturbed by Sasuke’s sudden attack. In fact, his grin seems wider, almost manic. It’s the face of someone who likes to play with their prey.

The other Rogue-nin doesn’t seem too bad off either, his clothes only appearing slightly singed. Sasuke notes with satisfaction, however, that one of his kunai hit its mark when the Rogue-nin yanks it from his arm as an afterthought. He just looks mad that a kid got the best of him.

Sasuke would love to kick some ass, but pragmatic at heart, he knows that they are at least Chunin level, and this is already an unfair fight. The best thing Sasuke can do right now is get over their roadblock and find Kakashi. From there his teacher will know what to do.

Too bad the two Rogue-nin are between him and his objective. Eyes fixed on them and the road, Sasuke formulates a plan. While he may not have a bloodline limit or years of experience to rely on, Sasuke has something far more valuable—speed. He doesn’t have to engage if he can outrun his foes.

With his mind made up, he forms the Jutsu for Shadow Clones, producing one for each of his opponents. Any more and he’ll be wasting chakra he might need for later. Now he needs a roadblock of his own, something to obscure the vision of the Shinobi. His Katon worked well last time. He might as well try it again.

All three perform the Katon in unison, but this time, his two clones aim for the trees on either side of the road, instantly igniting the battlefield and creating smoke.

Sasuke and the clones charge through the flames side-by-side, fast as Sasuke’s ever ran before. The heat is nearly imperceptible with Sasuke so focused on his goal. He ignores the charred Rogue-nin to his left because the rock wall is right before him. He propels himself forward with a vertical jump, already gathering chakra at his feet to run up the formation.

And as one foot touches the stone and Sasuke knows he is home free, a hand snatches his other foot, violently pulling him to the ground so hard his head rings.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his clones popped out of existence. The talkative Rogue-nin is smirking by his feet, the rock wall looming behind him.

Sasuke hops up as fast as possible, but the Rogue-nin is on him immediately, learning from his earlier mistake of giving Sasuke space.

Here in such close proximity, Sasuke is forced to rely solely on Taijutsu. There simply isn’t time to perform hand signs between one hit and the next.

The other Shinobi is giving them space, on standby in case Sasuke tries to make another break for it. It’s a non-issue because Sasuke can’t disengage from the Rogue-nin without turning his back to the man.

Sasuke resorts to defensive maneuvers, blocking as many hits as possible with his forearms and shins. His opponent is fast and brutal, trying to knock Sasuke out without killing him. Every punch and kick he lands boxes Sasuke in further, leaving a stinging sensation that will yield bruised, black flesh in the next hour.

Time loses all meaning as Sasuke focuses in on just surviving, but eventually—30 seconds in or 3 hours later—the Rogue-nin lands a kick to Sasuke’s head and it brings him to his knees.

It’s impossible to recover from, and the man continues with a volley of kicks until Sasuke curls up in a ball to protect his still ringing head and neck.

He goes numb from pain all over, waiting for the sweet relief of unconsciousness or divine intervention.

He despairs because it's over. They’ll bag him up and rip out his eyes before Kakashi can save him. A pathetic meaningless death for the last of the Uchiha.

As his vision starts to fade, Sasuke thinks vindictively, At least the eyes will be a dud. Worthless to me but more worthless to them.

And Sasuke’s vision goes completely black.

\----

 

Get up.

Sasuke’s world is filled with color and sound and movement.

His head is cushioned against the ground, one eye cracked open. From his position he can see an ant crawling along a blade of grass, the disturbance of leaves in a birch tree as a sparrow takes flight from its nest. The dirt and gravel before him separate into a thousand small details. Every pebble with granite in it sparkles like rubies in the midday sun, and he can make out the dust motes suspended in midair above the road. He sees a faint wisp of chakra, tracing the movement where the chatty Rogue-nin must have dodged his Katon.

...What?

Sasuke blinks a few times, but the chakra wisps don’t go away, nor does the microscopic detail of his environment. He feels a sensation at the back of his head, not like a headache but a slight dizziness and rush of energy.

If he concentrates he can sense a thick mass of chakra behind his eyes, more than Sasuke knew he ever had, and just like that, he understands.

His Sharingan has awoken.

Get up, the voice says again, and Sasuke complies. He doesn’t feel the ache in his bones from being beat up, not when exhilaration overrides every nerve ending in his body.

The Rogue-nin have their backs turned to him. He must have passed out.

But now is his chance. He just needs to incapacitate them long enough to get back to Kakashi.

As if on cue, they turn to him. There is shock spelled clearly on their faces. They didn’t expect him to wake up so soon, much less with an activated Sharingan. He wonders what they see on his face, if it’s the same red patterned eyes he sees in his worst nightmares, or if its wholly unique to Sasuke.

He decides he doesn’t care, when they both come charging at him.

Fighting with the Sharingan is amazing. Time feels slow, like Sasuke has five seconds to react for every second his opponents move. He can see the faint chakra concentrations in their body, where they're gathering it and how much they’re expending. Every move they take is broadly telegraphed—where before his opponent moved too fast for Sasuke to think, he can now predict five moves ahead what the man is going to do just from the angling of his feet and the crook of his elbow.

They don’t hold back this time, armed with lethal kunai and a viciousness reserved for fights to the death, but it doesn’t make a difference to Sasuke.

He kicks both Rogue-nin away from the rock wall he’s got his back to. The chatty one regains his footing quickly, though, and flashes through some unfamiliar hand signs.

Sasuke remembers what the Sharingan is best at, and lets his eyes guide his hands through the same signals the Shinobi performs before him.

He slams his hands down onto the ground a millisecond after the Rogue-nin and there is a deep rumbling noise from below his feet. Three feet in front of him, bursting from beneath the ground, two massive rock spires collide.

Sasuke pivots away from the Shinobi, coming face-to-face with the stony roadblock.

He doesn’t need to see the Rogue-nin perform the hands signs again, not when the Jutsu sits picture-perfect in his memory, his hands automatically completing it with the skill of someone far beyond his years.

He plasters his hands to the wall as a deep cracking sounds rings in his ears, and the wall is coming apart before him. He darts through without a look back to the two Rogue-nin behind him.

 

\----

 

On the other side, Sasuke registers three people—well, one person and three corpses, all fresh kills judging from the faint chakra trails behind their bodies. His teacher is standing eerily calm, only a small fleck of blood on his green Jounin vest.

He turns towards Sasuke the moment he steps through, and something is wrong with the way he looks, but Sasuke doesn’t have time to figure it out before Kakashi is charging straight towards him.

Sasuke’s Sharingan doesn’t pick it up in time, but Kakashi is pummeling past him and flickering with hot, white light, shoving him away from the broken wall. There’s a ringing in his ears, like birds screaming, and the smell of ozone fills the air.

Just as suddenly as it started it stops, the chirping sound cut off by the dull thud of bodies hitting the ground. The smell of ozone starts to fade, replaced by the stench of charred flesh.

He turns around, eyes wide, and Kakashi is still as a statue, only one drop of blood on him and clothing unrumpled.

But something is still wrong with Kakashi, because his forehead protector is askew with both eyes uncovered.

Sasuke’s set of eyes meet Kakashi’s—one gray and familiar, and one blood red, lazily spinning like the stuff of Sasuke’s nightmares.

Kakashi yanks his headband back down and flashes Sasuke a playful grin. But Sasuke doesn’t feel more relaxed like he usually does. He feels tense and afraid and the pounding at the back of his head is getting worse.

 

\----

 

Kakashi walks Sasuke through how to shut down his Sharingan before he passes out from chakra exhaustion, and Sasuke complies, too shocked and overwhelmed to do anything else. He’s scanned over for any lasting injuries. The damage is surprisingly light—all he has are some gross-looking bruises, a minor concussion, and a mildly sprained wrist. Kakashi cleans up the scene rather quickly and drags Sasuke off down the road. They’re taking a detour to the nearest village to stay in at an inn tonight. Kakashi doesn’t want to risk any more potential confrontations.

Sasuke trudges along the road behind Kakashi, silent from the multiple revelations he’s had in the past few hours.

On one hand, Sasuke has awakened his Sharingan. It’s a big deal, possibly the most important rite of passage an Uchiha can go through. It means thousands of new techniques Sasuke will now have access to, a unique bloodline limit on par with the Hyuuga Byakugan or Uzumaki chakra chains. Obito will train him seriously and soon enough, he’ll be miles ahead of the rest of his classmates. It’s exactly what he needs if he’s ever going to confront his brother.

It should be a happy occasion.

It should be a happy occasion, damn it.

But on that battlefield, Kakashi stared at him with a Sharingan in his left eye. And Kakashi is not an Uchiha. He took that eye from someone.

Even Sasuke knows it’s a severe breach of clan law. The Sharingan was the most protected secret of the Uchiha and it will remain that way. But Kakashi clearly knows more than he’s letting on.

In the awkward silence between them, Sasuke starts to make connections. Obito has white wiry scars across the entire left half of his body, resembling the veins of a leaf on a tree. He has some odd ability to create carbon from that side—a variation on the Shodaime’s Mokuton, Jounin like to whisper. And there’s one other oddity about Obito.

He wears an eyepatch over his left eye.

Uchiha Obito has one Sharingan. Hatake Kakashi has one Sharingan.

Sasuke never understood why Obito was banished from the clan, forced to drop the Uchiha name and sealed off from the compound premises. Obito never gave a solid reason, but Sasuke had always assumed it had something to do with Obito’s bastard orphan status.

It never sat quite right with him. It seemed too cruel for his family to abandon a child like that.

But the gifting of the Sharingan to an outsider? It’s a serious crime, enough to warrant permanent banishment or punishment by death.

Things are starting to make sense now.

And Sasuke feels bitter resentment in his gut at the fact that neither his last remaining family or his own sensei thought to tell him this. What else do they not trust him with?

 

\----

 

In the end it takes them three extra days to get return to Konoha, with Kakashi’s cautious pace and complicated route. By now it’s been a full week since they set out, but to Sasuke it feels like years.

The mission should have been a good thing, a coming of age moment for Sasuke, a break from the oppressiveness of Konoha’s looming walls. Sasuke got to go on a solo mission with his teacher. He got to meet the Fire Daimyo. He unlocked the Sharingan, for god’s sake.

But everything is tainted. Tainted by the cold detachment of the capital city, the disrespect of the Fire Daimyo, the secret of Kakashi’s Sharingan.

Sasuke has never been innocent, not since he was six and helpless as his whole family was slaughtered by the person he loved most in the world.

But he wonders if growing up should feel like this, if it should weigh so heavily on his shoulders, or it should taste like betrayal and melancholy on his tongue. For every piece of information and experience Sasuke has gained in the past week, he feels like he has traded whatever little is left of his soul away.

When they finally step through to the gates, Obito and Sakura are waiting. Sakura's already yelling at Kakashi for “being late again, sensei!” and Kakashi is teasing her goodnaturedly, so different from the stoic man Sasuke has spent the past few days with.

Sasuke makes eye contact with Obito before sharply looking away, the eyepatch a physical reminder of withheld secrets.

On every mission return, they’ve waited for each other at the gates. Sasuke and Obito always greet one other first, disregarding boyfriends, teammates, even the Hokage on a rare occasion. It’s a promise like breakfast, a bond between two people with no family left. Obito's hugs feel like his mother’s once did. They feel like salvation. They feel like homecoming.

Today Sasuke folds himself into Sakura’s surprised arms.

Today Sasuke ignores Obito.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't believe all kudos and comments! I was seriously beaming all day after I published chapter one. Thank you :) There will be one or two chapters left, depending on how I feel about splitting it.


	3. Homecoming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter where not much information is revealed and not many conflicts are resolved. Oh well. At least Sakura is there!

Sasuke doesn’t sleep at all the night he gets back from his mission.

He lays on Obito’s floor, swaddled in thick blankets with hair still damp from a long and warm shower, but his eyes will not close.

Thankfully, there are no Uzumakis in the apartment tonight, all three of them out handling important clan business or diplomatic affairs or whatever. Sasuke wasn’t really listening when Obito explained it, still mad at his cousin.

He hears the front door open at around three in the morning, voices trickling in and a sliver of light from underneath the door of Obito’s bedroom to indicate that the Uzumakis are finally back.

Sasuke feigns sleep, burrowing into his comforter. It’s not a moment too soon, because Obito quietly enters the room a second later. He hears the footsteps come closer, and there is a calloused hand brushing his hair off of his forehead. His cousin finally lets go after a moment, cautiously stepping over Sasuke’s makeshift bed, and the give of mattress springs confirms that Obito is settling down.

Sasuke is glued to his spot, eyes scrunched shut. He can feel Obito’s gaze on him the entire night.

If he turns around, he wonders if he’ll see one blood-red eye glowing and spinning in the darkness.

 

\----

 

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke wakes up before the Uzumakis. He stumbles out to the kitchen to find Kakashi bent against the counter, one of Jiraiya’s gross books in hand. He looks completely refreshed in his crisp Jounin uniform, like he didn’t just get back from a week-long mission where he murdered five Shinobi.

Damn him.

Kakashi looks up at him, decidedly unimpressed.

“Get dressed, brat, we’re delivering our mission report to the Hokage in thirty minutes.”

Sasuke’s eyes widen in surprise at this. It’s not standard procedure to personally deliver reports to the Hokage. The man is too busy for that.

It does make sense, Sasuke thinks as he scrambles about trying to find a clean shirt and pants to wear.

We met with the Fire Daimyo, Sasuke thinks as he tries to tame his spiky hair.

We survived a surprise confrontation with five Rogue-nin, and learned they have a bounty out for me, Sasuke thinks as he ties his forehead protector on to cover up his messy bangs.

I unlocked my Sharingan, Sasuke thinks as he follows Kakashi out the front door.

Sasuke might still be angry at Kakashi and Obito, but he can’t help but hold his head high at the thought of all of Konoha learning he has a Sharingan like the two of them. He imagines the Yondaime with his kind smile, shaking Sasuke’s hand in congratulations. Sakura and Sai will treat him to dinner in celebration. The citizens of Konoha will look at him with respect and awe, their pitying glances a distant childhood memory.

“Walk down the street with your eyes up,” his father said.

Uchiha Fugaku was a stern man, but Sasuke remembers his lessons well.

“The Uchiha are proud, above all else,” he told Sasuke that day, after Itachi had made ANBU.  
“Our blood is in the very foundation of the village, our ancestry an endless line of great warriors.”

The last of the Uchiha clan’s blood runs through the cracks of cobblestone streets in the now-abandoned compound—Itachi made sure of that. Sasuke’s family has been returned to their origins, but Sasuke is still here, living and breathing and fighting. He owes it to them to carry on the legacy.

Sasuke has a Sharingan now, and he is determined to become the greatest Shinobi Konoha has ever seen.

 

\----

 

Kakashi and Sasuke crowd into the Hokage’s office once again, and Kakashi gives a brief and dry report of their mission.

The Yondaime listens, but his eyes are glued to the scroll the Fire Daimyo had them deliver. He only looks up once Kakashi is finished speaking. He does not offer any interesting and top-secret information or a new mission objective like Sasuke was hoping for. In fact, the meeting is rather boring and quick, for all the excitement Sasuke experienced this week.

The Yondaime dismisses them quickly, and Sasuke starts to get up, his shoulders sagged in disappointment.

As he sets one hand on the door knob, a voice calls out.

“Sasuke!”

He swivels back around to face his Hokage.

“Congratulations on unlocking your Sharingan. I’m sure your mother and father would be very proud of you.”

The Yondaime’s smile is genuine, and Sasuke’s face flushes. The most powerful man in Konoha just paid him, thirteen-year-old Uchiha Sasuke, a compliment!

Kakashi gently nudges at his back to get him to move out before he can embarrass himself by gawking for too long. Sasuke prances out of the Hokage’s office like he’s walking on clouds.

Outside in the cozy waiting room, Uzumaki Kushina and her son are waiting in the hard, wooden chairs. Kushina sits poised and confidently, like a proper clan head while Naruto swings his feet and drums his fingers in a childlike fashion.

Not even Goldilocks’ presence can ruin Sasuke’s mood, and he struts by without a single word to the boy who made him feel so inferior a week ago.

He doesn’t notice the set of blue eyes trained on his back as he leaves.

 

\----

 

So, Sasuke’s fantasies aren’t exactly coming true, but it’s pretty damn close.

The Yondaime congratulated him earlier today, and Sakura said she’s taking care of dinner tonight.

Dinner turns out to be a lovely picnic in Founder’s Park. It’s kindly prepared by Sakura’s civilian dad, who heard from Sakura that Sasuke almost died on a mission but developed a cool new eye thingy instead, and it’s going to make him practically invincible from now on—at least, that’s how Sakura’s dad understood it.

It’s a nice gesture and it’s free food, so Sasuke’s not saying no.

He and his teammates make their way through the park nestled in the heart of Konoha city. It’s beautifully maintained, a popular spot for civilians and Shinobi alike. The statues of prominent Senju and Uchiha Shinobi who established Konoha are scattered about the park, lined by bright red poppy flower beds and lush grass lawns.

There are old people gathered at the wooden benches playing rounds of speed Shogi, and little kids rolling down the grass knolls and climbing drooping willow trees.

Sakura leads the way past all this, to a more secluded part of the park. Off of the main avenue of the park is a grove of cherry-blossom trees—the variety Sakura is named for. At the very end of the cherry tree grove is a bronze statue of Uzumaki Mito, who Sakura once confessed was her Kunoichi idol.

The bubblegum-haired girl and her two teammates settle down beneath Mito’s shadow, dividing the dinner bentos between them.

Sasuke settles back, and lets Sakura and Sai do the talking. He’s still tired from his mission and subsequent sleepless night.

They start off by bragging about how much they’ve learned and trained this past week in comparison to Sasuke. 

It’s a moot point because neither of his teammates have bloodline limits, Sasuke conveys through an aristocratic sneer.

Sakura hits him with a sandal for his behavior.

She starts to brag about learning some Fuinjutsu from Karin, but Sasuke interrupts by explaining Kakashi also taught him the basics. Sai settles the argument when he points out that he’s the most experienced seal-user among the three of them, punctuating his point with a hastily scribbled sparrow that comes to life and settles in the sakura tree nearest to them.

It's good to know that some things stay the same, like Team 7’s love-hate dynamic. 

Sasuke zones them out for a while, happy to lay down with his eyes closed the way he sees Shikamaru do during lunch breaks.

“...and then Naruto caught Kiba and Akamaru in his trap! It so funny to see them trudge off to training soaked in orange paint,” Sakura drones on.

Sasuke quirks an eye open at the mention of Goldilocks’ name, before springing up as realization sets in.

“What about Naruto?!” He practically screams in Sakura’s ear.

Sakura rolls her eyes at Sasuke’s dramatic reaction, speaking slowly this time like she’s talking to a young child.

“Kiba challenged Naruto to a prank war a few days ago, and Naruto absolutely owned his ass,” Sakura states.

“But you can’t say anything about it to any of the adults,” she adds. “Naruto said the Uzumaki elders and his mom would freak out if they found out.”

But Sasuke doesn’t care about some old and crusty civilians or Kiba’s stupid challenges.

“I’ve been gone one week, and all of a sudden you’re best friends with Uzumaki-stick-up-his-ass-Naruto?” Sasuke shrieks.

“Honestly, Sasuke,” Sakura scolds, “you haven’t even gotten to know him. He’s really fun.”

Sasuke’s eyes bulge out of his head at this.

“It’s like you don't even remember what he did to me! He’s a stuck-up coward! He said himself that Konoha is a shitty village and a waste of his time!” Sasuke growls.

“You also like to complain about Konoha all the time.” Sai points out unhelpfully.

Not Sai too!

“Yeah,” Sakura says in an exasperated tone of voice. “I think you’re letting a poor first impression get in the way of actually knowing the guy. You’re presuming a lot about him, and you’ve talked to him for like...a total of five minutes? If anyone's being an asshole here, it’s you.”

There’s no convincing his teammates right now, Sasuke realizes, so he drops the subject.

Sakura takes this as a cue to continue her conversation before it was so rudely interrupted. She and Sai trades anecdotes about the Uzumakis for the next twenty minutes while Sasuke broods in silence.

Eventually he excuses himself as Sai launches into a story about another one of the stunts “Dickless” and “Four-Eyes” Uzumaki pulled.

Sakura and Sai barely acknowledge his departure, too busy laughing about some inside joke from this past week.

As he makes his way back home, Sasuke feels like he’s been betrayed all over again. All he has waiting for him at the apartment is the Uzumakis with their red hair, and Obito with his eye-patch and one red Sharingan—two beautiful and bitter reminders of what Sasuke’s lost this week.

His head sinks in despair as he walks down the streets of Konoha.

 

\----

 

That second night is just as sleepless as the one before.

Sasuke leaves early in the morning while it's still dark out to avoid Obito and the Uzumakis, making his way to Training Ground 4.

Technically he has today off, so he spends the rest of the morning and early afternoon practicing his kunai accuracy.

There’s not much to improve on, so Sasuke settles down onto the lush green grass, closing his eyes. With the warm sun in his face and the babbling of a nearby stream, Sasuke falls asleep.

He wakes up to Sakura’s bright eyes and even brighter hair. She’s poking him and saying something and Sasuke starts to shut his eyes again in exhaustion.

“...gonna kill me if we’re not there in time. So, get your fat ass up!”, Sakura punctuates with a kick to Sasuke’s side.

He groans in pain, eyes snapping open. That definitely got him up.

“Are you even listening?” Sakura yells.

“I kinda missed that first part,” Sasuke confesses. He follows that up with a big yawn to emphasize his point.

Sakura grabs his arm with her freakishly strong and manly hands, dragging him up and away from the field. The sun is low in the sky and the birds have stopped chirping. Huh, Sasuke thinks. He must’ve dozed off for a bit longer than expected.

“As I was saying,” Sakura growls out, “today is Choji’s birthday, which you definitely forgot about. But I’m kind enough to remind you. Dinner starts at six, so we won't be late if we walk fast.”

Sasuke absently nods and lets Sakura pull him along, agreeable in his drowsiness.

It’s only once they stop in front of a popular (and expensive) barbeque restaurant in middle of the shopping district that Sasuke snaps out of his stupor.

He turns sharply towards Sakura, panic setting in to his features.

“I don’t have a gift for Choji.”

Sakura smacks him on the side of the head so hard that he sees stars.

When his vision clears and he picks himself up off the pavement, Sakura glares at him.

“You’re such an idiot. I can’t believe I willingly hang out with you.”

Seeing Sasuke’s bewildered expression, Sakura continues.

“We literally decided two weeks ago that we were splitting a gift for all of Team Seven since the only money we make is off of D-Ranks. Sai brought the gift.”

“Oh,” Sasuke responds. This all sounds vaguely familiar, but if it was a conversation that happened two weeks ago, Sasuke was probably daydreaming about meeting and marrying into the Uzumaki clan. Oh, how foolish he was.

“Let’s go, Sasuke,” Sakura yells from the entrance to the restaurant. “I think everyone beat us inside!”

Sasuke has no choice but to follow his teammate inside.

 

\----

 

Sakura was right, Sasuke thinks as he enters the barbeque place.

Literally all the other Genin teams got here before them.

The restaurant itself is small and dimly lit, a fair percentage of the tables pushed together in the middle of the room where all of Sasuke’s peers are waiting.

It’s a nice restaurant, the kind that Sasuke only goes to when Obito has adult dinner parties that Sasuke is invited to. Judging from the empty tables, Choji’s family must have booked the entire place for his birthday. It’s not surprising. Choji is the only child of the Akimichi clan head, and shows a lot of potential for the future. Not to mention he makes up an integral part of the current Ino-Shika-Cho Team configuration.

If his family was still alive, Sasuke wonders if he would get the same treatment. He doubts it. While his mother may have doted on him as a young boy, his father was harsh and distant. By the time Itachi was thirteen he was already joining the ANBU—Sasuke doesn’t think Fugaku would let him get away with anything so juvenile by this age. Besides, his cousin Shisui was the darling prodigy Uchiha, followed by closely by Itachi, who was sure to become clan head one day. Sasuke’s not even sure if he would have had friends outside of his cousins in the Uchiha clan; the Uchiha were pretty isolated, the way the Hyuugas still are today.

Speaking of Hyuugas, both Hinata and Neji are gathered round the table, Hinata beside Shino and Kiba, and Neji uncomfortably pressed between a rambunctious Lee and Tenten.

Sakura rushes over towards the center of the table where Ino has saved her a seat, leaving Sasuke to awkwardly shuffle to the end of the table where the only free seat remains.

Karin is here, oddly enough, but her body is angled inwards as she ignores Sasuke to talk to Gai’s team. It makes sense--she’s been training with them all week, and they’re all fourteen years old, compared to the rest of the people at the table.

His only other companion own here is Akamaru, so Sasuke settles for watching the rest of his peers from afar. He’s not that talkative anyway.

Hinata and Kiba and Shino are all at the opposite end of the table, Sai amicably chatting with them. Sasuke can’t hear what they’re saying, but he can see as Kiba throws his head back in laughter and Hinata starts to blush, so he’s sure that Sai is just being his usual self.

His side is full of Gai’s Team’s frantic energy, but what’s most interesting is the middle of the table. He can see a soft pink head of hair, where Sakura and Ino’s heads are bent together. They’re probably planning something, terrors that they are.

Choji sits at the middle of the table, Shikamaru to his right, and...Naruto to his left?!

He could understand if Naruto was sitting next to Sakura or Sai because they’ve been babysitting him the whole week, or even Kiba because of that stupid prank war thing Sakura told him about yesterday.

But Sasuke can’t imagine how he got so close to Team 10 already. Ino, maybe, because she likes to surround herself with beautiful people, and Sasuke begrudgingly admits that Naruto is radiant in an exotic sort of way, thanks to his Uzushio roots.

Choji is easygoing. Maybe Naruto used that to his advantage to infiltrate the group. But, hell, even Shikamaru looks mildly interested in whatever Goldilocks is babbling on about right now. Sasuke thought that Shikamaru, as smart as he is, would be a better judge of character.

He’s so fake, Sasuke thinks angrily, as he watches Naruto beam across the table at Ino and Sakura. 

He thinks we’re all below him, just a waste of time and space. 

Not worthy of breathing the same air as him, Sasuke decides when Naruto cracks a joke in Neji’s direction and Neji rolls his eyes good-naturedly in response.

It's part of some malicious plan, Sasuke decides when Naruto winks at Hinata and her entire face turns beet-red. 

He hasn’t decided if the other Uzumakis are in on it, but he knows Naruto is up to no good. 

He’s going to gain the trust of all of Sasuke’s friends, get close to them and get them to confide him. That’s when he’ll strike. He’ll backstab them, selling their secrets out to the highest bidding village. Maybe he’ll even resort to violence.

Sasuke has experience with betrayal within his own messed-up family. He is, admittedly, getting a bit paranoid. It’s understandable though. Even Obito and Kakashi have been lying to Sasuke for years.

Or, a voice in Sasuke’s head whispers, he’s specifically out for you. 

Maybe he’s a spy hired by Itachi to finish the job. First he’ll isolate you from all your friends. He’s already doing that. Then, once you’re alone and distraught over the abandonment of everyone you know and love, he’ll attack. Cut open your throat in some back alley, stage it like a random mugging, and no one will be the wiser.

As soon as Sasuke thinks of it, he dismisses the idea. It’s so farfetched and dumb. There’s no way he’s a spy.

But Naruto doesn’t look like the rest of the Uzumakis. He doesn’t have the trademark red hair, and he’s got those funky looking scars or birthmarks on his face. Kushina said Karin was a distant relative and not her actual niece. Maybe Naruto is the same way?

A sharp poke into his shoulder jars Sasuke out of his train of thought. He jumps back in surprise only to find Uzumaki Karin’s choppy fringe of red hair blocking his view of the rest of the table.

The glare she gives him would scare a lesser man. 

Luckily, Sasuke is a master of bitch faces himself.

“I know your type,” Karin says in a low tone of voice.

Sasuke quirks an eyebrow in response.

“And what type would that be?”

“Gold diggers. Greedy Shinobi. The kind of people that think they can trick my stupid little cousin into giving away clan secrets,” Karin mutters darkly.

Uh.

“You think that your tall, dark, and mysterious look will work on him. And once he tells you everything about the Uzumakis, you’ll dump him like three-day-old trash,” Karin continues.

What?

Karin is so far off base in her understanding of Sasuke’s intentions, it’s almost laughable. Except Sasuke is too bewildered to enjoy the mistake.

A finely manicured nail presses into Sasuke’s face.

“Stop staring at him, or I’ll make you stop myself,” Karin growls out.

And with that, she’s out of Sasuke’s face and engaged in conversation with Tenten.

Sasuke blinks in surprise, looking over to Naruto and the center of the table. Nobody seems to have noticed Karin’s little shovel talk routine. Sakura and Sai are too busy listening to some story Naruto is recounting about toads and slugs or something.

No one is paying any attention to Sasuke at all, actually.

They’re haven’t gotten any food yet, but Sasuke suddenly isn’t feeling hungry anymore.

He excuses himself from the table with little fanfare, some hollow excuse about feeling ill on his lips. No one seems too upset when he leaves.

He doesn’t notice a familiar blue pair of eyes on him as he exits the restaurant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, guys. The comments and kudos and hits mean so much to me. I'm hoping to have the next (and final) chapter up within five days. That's how inspired I am. See ya then.


	4. Second Chances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a long one, folks. I'm gonna do a little post mortem at the bottom, read it if you want.

Another bad day, another sleepless night. If Sasuke keeps this up, he’s going to start forming bad habits.

The day after Choji’s birthday, Sasuke wakes up miserable and grumpy. The blinking red alarm clock on Obito’s nightstand reads 5:32 A.M., so Sasuke hauls his ass up and into the kitchen.

He’s going to grab a banana from the kitchen and head to Training Ground 36, which is far enough out that even Sakura will have trouble finding him. He’s planning on spending the day test out his Sharingan.

And isn’t that a novel thought, Sasuke with a Sharingan.

He covets the idea like a treasured possession, a family heirloom. He shares everything else in his life, right down to his own privacy and bedroom, thanks to the Uzumakis. The Sharingan, though? It’s purely his, and it will remain that way for as long as Sasuke lives.

He’s almost giddy as he walks into the kitchen, focused on new possibilities and potential for the future.

Which explains why he jumps back in fright when he flicks on the kitchen light.

Obito is sitting at the small kitchen table, fully dressed in his Jounin uniform, eyepatch and all. He’s nursing a mug of steaming coffee between his gloved hands.

Who the hell sits around in the dark at this hour in the morning anyways?

Whatever, Sasuke doesn’t care. He deliberately avoids eye contact with Obito, skirting around the table to grab a banana from the countertop.

Right as he’s about to make it out the door, a voice calls out from behind him.

“Sit your punk ass down, Sasuke,” Obito orders.

Sasuke slowly turns around, angrily slamming himself into the furthest possible chair from Obito.

He refuses to make eye contact with Obito, but Obito isn’t deterred.

“You’ve missed breakfast two days in a row now,” Obito starts. “I was being patient because you’ve been through a lot this week, but I’m leaving for a mission to Suna in a few hours. We’re going to talk about this now.”

Sasuke sits in silence, his expression defiant.

Obito sighs before continuing.

“Sasuke, don’t make me leave on a bad note like this. I want to know that you’ll be okay while I’m gone and the—”

“You lied to me!” Sasuke screams. “You and Kakashi looked at me every day with those matching red eyes and you lied!”

The scars on Obito’s face pull taut as his face contorts with shame.

“Were you ever going to tell me, or just let me find out by mistake?” Sasuke asks in a quieter voice.

Obito looks stricken and guilty at that.

“I...we…,” he bites out. Obito takes a shaky breath before starting again. ”No twenty year old is responsible enough to raise a child. You came to live me when you were so young, Sasuke, but I was young too. I made a lot of mistakes. You were hurting, and you didn't trust me. You couldn’t have—not when we had just met and certainly not with everything that happened.”

Obito won’t say the word ‘massacre’, but Sasuke knows what he’s referring to.

They sit in painful silence for what feels like hours before Sasuke finally speaks up.

“You traded away your birthright. You traded away our family’s legacy,” Sasuke sniffles out quietly. He presses a hand to his own eyes, and pulls his hand away at the damp touch.

Oh.

There are tears openly trailing down his cheeks now.

He hadn't even noticed.

Obito’s eye looks suspiciously watery too.

“It was a gift, Sasuke,” Obito insits.

“Then tell me,” Sasuke demands softly. “No more secrets.”

So Obito launches into a story about a young Uchiha, dead last in his class at the academy.

He explains that he was a bastard child, born out of wedlock, his parents both lost on missions in the Third Shinobi War not too long after. The Uchiha took him in, but even to his own family, he was an outcast.

But there was hope. The boy managed to graduate from the Academy, and he was assigned a team. His Sensei was kind and gentle and powerful, destined for greatness as the Yondaime of Konoha. One of his teammates was a lonely and mysterious genius by the name of Kakashi, already a Jounin by the age of twelve. Kakashi was a bit of a bitch to the young Uchiha boy, but we’ll get to that later. Most important was the third teammate, a compassionate and beautiful girl named Rin. She wanted to be a medic-nin, like the mighty Sanin Tsunade, so she could use her hands for healing instead of killing.

At this point in the story, Obito looks up at the portrait on the wall. Sasuke does too, glad to know more about Rin.

The team’s dynamic works this way: The Sensei patiently teaches, the Uchiha boy struggles, the Uchiha boy develops a crush on Rin, Rin crushes on Kakashi, Kakashi is mean to Obito, and Obito is mean to Kakashi. And so, the cycle continues.

It all changes on a routine mission where they are instructed to destroy a bridge. The bridge is an important supply route for enemy nations in the Third War and demolishing it could shorten the war by months. Months means thousands of lives spared from the endless fighting, on both sides.

It goes wrong when they are attacked. The Sensei is securing his part of the mission, too far away to protect his students, and Kakashi is acting as supervising Jounin. Rin gets captured, and the Uchiha goes after her while Kakashi sticks to the mission.

The Uchiha rescues her, but more enemies show up and they are both trapped.

Until Kakashi returns for his teammates. He slaughters the enemies without hesitation to protect his team.

But there is a Justu gone wrong, and the cave they are trapped inside collapses.

The Uchiha boy pushes Kakashi out of the way of a rockslide, caught in it instead.

With his body half trapped under hundreds of tons of rocks, he requests that his left eye be given to Kakashi, who injured his own earlier on the mission. Rin performs the transfusion herself, thanks to her medical knowledge.

The Uchiha boy dies with his friends at his side, and that’s the end of the story.

Until the Uchiha boy wakes up in a dark cave, thousands of miles away from Konoha, with a crazy and ancient ancestor at his side.

Uchiha Madara, Obito whispers, like the saying the name will cause the spectre himself to appear. He doesn’t say much about his time with Madara, but Sasuke understands. He doesn’t like to talk much about Itachi either.

Six months later, Obito frees himself, fleeing to Konoha as fast as his recently-healed body can take him. He stops miles from the border when he senses two familiar chakra signatures.

The first glimpse of his teammates in six months, and all the Uchiha boy sees is Rin die by Kakashi’s hand.

Here, Obito stops to explain the situation from Kakashi’s side. Enemy Shinobi forced a Tailed Beast into Rin’s body, to unleash it upon Konoha. Rin knew she was no Uzumaki Mito, and could not contain the demon for long, so she begged Kakashi to kill her. He refused, and she jumped in front of his attack meant for an enemy nin.

It must’ve been a terrible way to die, and an even worse way to kill someone, Sasuke says aloud without thinking.

Obito solemnly agrees.

The Uchiha boy saw the whole thing, and in his rage, killed every enemy nin in the area. When they found him, he was collapsed over Kakashi’s unconscious form and Rin’s corpse.

There was an extended hospital stay, and treatment from Tsunade herself. The Uchiha boy was miserable, but his Sensei was now the Hokage, and his formerly cruel teammate Kakashi started following him around like a lost puppy.

 

\----

 

The Uchiha demand he takes back his Sharingan, but the Uchiha boy refuses.

It’s a gift, he insists.

He is banished from the clan. He is no longer the Uchiha boy.

 

\----

 

“I don’t regret any of it.” Obito says, once he finishes his story.

A pause, and then, “I love Kakashi more than almost anything in the world.”

Sasuke looks up at that, surprised Obito is so forward with his affection. The two of them, for all Sasuke likes to complain, are rather discrete in their relationship.

Obito smiles at Sasuke.

“The only thing I love more in this world is you,” he says with a straight face.

Sasuke throws himself over the table into Obito’s arms. And the two of them press their tear-soaked faces together in catharsis.

This hug feels like absolution.

 

\----

 

It’s six o’clock now, and Obito needs to leave for his mission. He’s out the door with a big grin on his face. He promises to teach Sasuke some new Sharingan tricks when he gets back from his trip.

 

\----

 

Sasuke goes back to Obito’s room to get changed into clean clothes and resting against the door he finds a neatly-wrapped scroll. It’s addressed to him, in an unfamiliar and messy scrawl. Sasuke pockets it without much thought.

 

\----

 

A few hours later, he meets up with Sakura, Sai, Karin, and Gai’s team. Goldilocks (thankfully) isn’t here. Apparently, he had another meeting with the Hokage.

They’re sparring under Gai’s supervision. Sasuke is eager to show off his Sharingan, and the rest of the Konoha Genin are equally eager to show off their new Fuinjutsu skills. Even Lee has some tags with him, pre-charged by Tenten.

Tenten gets up first, tagging Sakura in as her opponent.

It’s a well-matched spar. Both Kunoichi are strong at Taijutsu, and both seemed to have a pretty advanced understanding of Fuinjutsu, despite having only spent a week learning it.

Sakura rushes at Tenten with her fists, as expected.

The strategy looks inexperienced and rash to an outsider, but Sasuke knows his teammate well. This is a tactic she’s used to beat him and Sai before, and it’s best saved for unfamiliar opponents.

Sakura is smart, above all else. She rushes her opponent first, gets a sense for weak spots by testing them. She might look like she’s striking randomly, desperate to exploit any possible openings, but in her mind, she’s cataloguing every possible weakness—childhood injuries, blind spots, down to the most minor details like whether or not her opponent is left handed.

She does this to Tenten, a flurry of motion and seemingly wasted energy. Tenten has an easy time blocking the blows, but Sasuke knows Sakura is barely putting any energy into them. This goes on for about five minutes, closely resembling Neji and Lee’s match up the other day. But Sakura doesn’t have the sheer endurance or strength of Lee, so she retreats across the field.

This is the part that Sasuke hates, because it’s so damn boring to watch.

Sakura will wait out her opponent. She’ll sort through all the information she just got, keeping distance from her target. Any Jutsu they perform while she’s at long distance is noted in the strategy she’s developing. If she’s got an impulsive opponent, her evasiveness might even frustrate them and impede their judgement.

Jounin have called her a coward for this part. Kakashi describes it as a predator playing with her food.

Tenten and Sakura sit in this phase for ten minutes, where not much of anything happens. Tenten’s got good enough instincts to know not to risk getting close to Sakura, so she tests out some seals on the fly.

There’s a water scroll that explodes into a thousand droplets of rain, but Sakura avoids it easily—the only damage it does is drenching everyone on the field.

Tenten attempts an impressive seal triggered by chakra threads. She sets one hand on the scroll, and the string snaps out into a complex and spiraling spider web pattern that would surely detain any Shinobi not alert enough to notice it.

But its range isn’t quite large enough to reach Sakura, whose back is practically pressed into the tree line. The trap remains on the field, glimmering faintly in the afternoon sun.

Sakura sets up a couple neat tags of her own with minimal effort. Tenten dismantles them with some well-placed Kunai.

There are no other bold moves from Sakura. Her pale green eyes stay fixed on Tenten, nearly unblinking, her feet glued to the ground.

Next to Sasuke, Neji huffs in annoyance. Sasuke would beat the Hyuuga up for doubting his teammate, but Sasuke knows he doesn’t need to defend Sakura. She’ll do it herself when she inevitably wins this spar.

On the field, Tenten seems to grow tired of waiting too, and she unfurls the scroll she always has attached to her back. This, Sasuke is excited to see.

Just as Lee excels at Taijutsu and Neji is a master of the Hyuuga techniques, Tenten has her own area of concentration.

She’s a weapons specialist, and the scroll she totes around everywhere is essentially a pocket armory.

It doesn’t take any hand signs for her to activate it, and Sasuke is confused until remembers Kakashi’s lesson on pre-loaded seals.

Hard to control, easy to deploy.

Tenten seems to know what she’s doing though, because she pulls a bo staff from the paper with the ease of a far more experienced Shinobi.

In her other hand, shuriken materialize.

She handles the bo staff for a moment, getting reacquainted with its weight and length. Across the field, Sakura is studying her carefully.

There’s a flash in his teammates eyes, and Sasuke may not know what Sakura is thinking, but he knows she is going to strike.

Sakura performs some quick hand signs, and there’s a rumbling of the earth.

It’s remarkably similar to the Jutsu the Iwa Rogue-nin used when they attacked, Sasuke thinks as he watches Sakura sprint across the field. No rocks spring up from the earth, but that’s deliberate on Sakura’s part. She only needs a minor distraction.

The quaking is severe enough to dismantle Tenten’s chakra string seal, and Sakura knows this as she charges without hesitation towards Tenten. The blue wires of the trap wink out of existence a heartbeat before Sakura’s sandals step down.

Some would call it luck.

It’s really not.

This is a calculation.

Tenten notices too. She unleashes her shuriken at Sakura, but Sakura has a kunai in one hand, automatically deflecting the objects as they near her.

She’s getting nearer and near to Tenten, and Tenten readies her stance, bo staff in hand.

She swings out with the wooden pole, anticipating Sakura’s movement.

But Sakura stops short, a single centimeter out of the bo staff’s range. It’s too late for Tenten, who can’t stop the momentum of the weapon by this point. Across her normally calm features is a flash of panic.

There’s a strong chakra signature gathering on the battlefield, and Sasuke flashes his Sharingan on automatically. Beside him, Neji triggers his Byakugan.

It’s a green mass of chakra in Sakura’s right fist, so concentrated it’s nearly visible to the average human eye.

Her glowing fist swings out towards the bo staff, and there’s a brilliant flash of light and a massive release of energy.

Tenten’s staff shatters upon impact, the force of the explosion so intense that she is thrown backwards from the battlefield.

A shockwave ripples out from where weapon met flesh, and Sasuke feels his hair blow back from it.

Wooden chips rain down across the field, and Sakura stands at the epicenter, like she didn’t just hit something so hard that everyone in a two-hundred-foot radius felt it.

Tenten pulls herself up from the ground, marveling at the bits of her weapon scattered about.

Gai bursts into applause, and everyone else is quick to follow.

Sasuke jogs over to Sakura, who’s starting to look a bit embarrassed at all the attention.

“How did you do that?” Sasuke demands.

Everyone has reached her now, expressions curious and awed.

“It’s just a trick I picked up from Tsunade-sama. She told me a couple weeks ago that even if I don’t have massive chakra reserves, I can gather and release it all at once with enough precision.” Sakura admits shyly.

“Like pushing pressured water through a hose,” Karin marvels.

Sakura blushes even more at that.

“Kind of?” She considers the idea for a moment. “It’s easier to think of as potential energy. I’ve been practicing on the trees in Training Ground 14, lately.”

Neji’s jaw drops open in a rare moment of emotion for the young man.

“That was you? The entire field is completely deforested,” he says.

Sakura is starting to look more and more uncomfortable with each passing question, but Gai steps in with a reassuring palm on her back.

“It was a job well done, Sakura. You deserve a break. You too, Tenten, those seals were immaculate.”

The girls leave, crossing the field to sit underneath the shade of a solid oak tree.

Everybody else follows.

Once they’re all settled, Sasuke remembers the scroll in his bag.

“Gai-Sensei,” he inquires with his best talking-to-adults-voice, “I have a scroll I want to test out.”

Gai motions for him to step forward, and Sasuke presents the scroll with a flourish he’ll never admit to. He ignores Karin’s quiet grumbling and unfurls it onto the ground.

Everybody examines it, trying to guess what it might be.

Even Gai is stumped.

“Why don’t we all take a step back,” he suggests, properly cautious around what might be dangerous Jutsu.

Sasuke doesn’t think the scroll will be dangerous. It’s written in the same messy handwriting as the name tag was, and it lists off a bunch of seemingly unrelated adjectives.

They’re all nouns with positive or benign connotations, like ‘sunshine’ and ‘puppies’ and ‘ramen’.

“Looks like it’s precharged,” Karin points out from over his shoulder.

“How would you know,” he accuses, turning to glare at the annoying redhead.

“I’m good at this sort of thing,” Karin admits with a shrug. “Check it with your freaky eyes if you don’t believe me.”

Sasuke begrudgingly activates his Sharingan, as does Neji with his Byakugan.

“Huh,” Neji comments.

Sai is squinting at it in consideration from over Sasuke’s other shoulder.

“It’s a haiku,” he states like it’s obvious.

They all turn to look at the scroll.

“He’s right!” Sakura exclaims, “It’s the five-seven-five pattern! There’s six stanzas.”

This is so weird, Sasuke thinks as he fingers the paper.

“Okay, everybody step back or whatever. I’m gonna activate this thing,” Sasuke declares.

He gives everyone a moment to prepare battle stances. Only Karin remains lazily slouched, overconfident jerk she is.

He slams a hand down on the paper...and nothing happens.

Well, a tiny spark shoots high up into the sky, but that’s about it.

Sai starts to speak.

“That was disappointi--”

He’s cut off by the sound of an explosion.

Above them, the sky rains down flower petals.

Above them, even in the daytime, Sasuke can make out a frankly ridiculous number of rainbow fireworks going off.

“What a beautiful and youthful display!” Lee exclaims as he cranes his neck up towards the sky, fists full of rose and poppy petals.

The field smells suspiciously like freshly baked cookies.

Flower petals and confetti continue to pour down from the sky as more fireworks go off.

Sasuke glares at his feet in annoyance. He knows who the mystery seal maker is.

It seems like even when Naruto isn’t here, he manages to steal the show.

 

\----

 

Gai ends practice early, with how distracted everyone is after the seal extravaganza.

Sasuke dodges all questions about the source of the scroll.

He turns down an invitation from Sakura and Sai to go to Ichiraku for lunch with Naruto. He also pretends to ignore Karin’s intense glare, sure that she knows who made that seal.

Lee offers to spar with Sasuke, and that’s a tempting offer, especially to see how his Sharingan holds up against Lee’s Taijutsu, but he turns it down.

Sasuke knows who he needs to speak to sort out this whole Uzumaki situation.

 

\----

 

He finds Tsunade day-drinking at a dive bar that borders the red-light district, because all the adults in Sasuke’s life have crippling personality issues, whether that be very public porn addictions, childlike immaturity, or straight-up alcoholism.

He settles next to her at the bar.

She doesn’t bat an eyelash at his presence, instead choosing to finish chugging the glass of sake she has in her hand.

“You’re a little young to be coming to a place like this, kid.” Tsunade points out.

“It’s a little early in the day to be drinking like that,” Sasuke counters.

Tsunade hums at that.

“Fair point,” she concedes. “But when you’ve pulled out 5 objects from buttholes alone in one day,” she adds, “we can talk about drinking habits again.”

He snorts, grateful that someone in Konoha has the same sense of humor as him.

They sit in silence for a while as Sasuke thinks about how to ask his question.

“Do you ever feel like you’re being replaced?” Sasuke finally mutters out.

Tsunade consider the question for a moment. The longer she stays silent, the sillier Sasuke feels, sitting at this dumpy bar asking one of the most powerful Shinobi in the world for personal advice.

“When I was a child, there were very few Kunoichi,” Tsunade starts. “I was on a team with two boys, and as wise and understanding as Sarutobi-Sensei was, he was no woman.”

Sasuke marvels at that. He can't believe he forgot that Tsunade was on a team with the other two Sanin, and that all three of them were trained by the Sandaime himself.

“Kunoichi were expected to become medics, while their stronger, male counterparts learned how to properly fight. I was no exception,” Tsunade spits out bitterly.

The concept is so stupid that Sasuke almost screams. He can’t imagine someone like Sakura or Tenten being told not to fight when they are equally as powerful, if not more so, than his male peers.

“I learned both,” Tsunade continues, “and now no one doubts my skill in either. I’m the best medic-nin the world has ever seen, and I could take down most full-grown Shinobi with my pinky finger alone.”

That sounds more like the Tsunade Sasuke knows. He doesn’t quite see how this applies to him.

“But for a long time, I felt forgotten by the Sandaime in favor of my other teammates. I was miserable and lonely and misunderstood. So, I threw myself into training and studying until they couldn't ignore me.”

That’s her advice? Train so hard that Sasuke’s friends will be forced to pay attention?

Tsunade grips his shoulder tight, forcing him to look at her.

“If I could, I would go back in time to tell my younger self not to despair. It was worth it, to hear all these young Kunoichis tell me they want to be as strong as me one day.”

Sasuke frowns. This story is getting less and less relevant by the second.

“Your situation is nowhere near similar to mine,” Tsunade adds. “For one thing, you have a dick. People will pay attention to you no matter how much of an incompetent fool you may be. Just look at Jiraiya!” Tsunade lets out a bark of laughter at her own joke.

Sasuke rolls his eyes at this. He gets the feeling Tsunade isn’t finished talking.

“But in all seriousness, I wouldn’t be too worried about being replaced by some Uzushio brats. Your family loves you a lot more than they say.”

Sasuke thinks of Kakashi buying him dinner and taking notes at the therapy sessions. He thinks of Obito’s stupid breakfast rule, and the conversation they had this morning, which seemed like lifetimes ago.

“And I don’t know most of your little friends too well, but that Haruno girl cares about you a lot. She pestered me about training a few weeks ago. Insisted she wanted to get better so she could always have your back,” Tsunade says with a calculated nonchalance.

Sasuke feels tears welling at the corners of his eyes. Twice in one day? He’s turning into Obito when he watches the Hallmark channel. His reputation is going to go out the window if he keeps this up.

“Thanks, Tsunade,’ Sasuke quietly says.

As he gets up, he meets Tsunade's serious face.

She moves faster than Sasuke can react, pinching his face between her lacquered nails like a proper old lady who doesn't look a day over thirty.

“You are more than your clan name,” she says intensely. “Your value is not dictated by your usefulness as a soldier or by what people expect of you.”

She leans in close.

“You are your own person.”

And with that, she lets go of his face. Sasuke pitches towards the ground and catches himself. He didn’t realize that Tsunade was practically supporting his entire body between her two delicate hands.

He makes his way out of the dingy bar, still contemplating Tsunade’s words.

“Oh, and Sasuke,” Tsunade calls out over her shoulder.

Sasuke goes still at the mighty Sanin’s voice.

“Please work this thing out with Naruto. He’s asked me about you so many times in this past week that it’s starting to get annoying.”

Sasuke goes stiff, uncomfortable at the mention of Naruto. He dashes out the door before she can say anything more to embarrass him.

 

\----

 

He stumbles home in a daze. There are microwavable meals in the freezer that Obito left for him, and Sasuke heats one up, consuming it in a rapid manner of seconds.

He trudges to bed soon after.

The Uzumaki problem keeps him up that night.

Sasuke has been getting mixed signals for the past week, he’ll admit it. It’s possible he may have misjudged Goldilocks, like Sakura said.

But he really has no clue who this boy is. Is he shy and sheltered, the immature princeling Karin seems to treat him as? Or is he the social butterfly all off Sasuke’s classmates believe him to be? Something completely different?

Whatever it may be, Sasuke’s glad he shed that holier-than-thou persona while Sasuke was away. Neji still hasn’t learned how to do that and it's annoying as hell.

Sasuke’s still got a healthy dose of suspicion about the boy, but he also trusts the judgement of Sakura (and to a lesser extent, Sai.)

There’s also his mild worship of Uzumaki Mito. He can’t believe that one of her own descendants would be so awful. Weird, yes, but not a potential spy or assassin. Especially not when the rest of his clan seems so normal.

His train of thought is interrupted by a knock on Obito’s door.

“Come in,” he says before remembering that Obito left on a mission this morning.

Uzumaki Naruto himself opens the door, dressed in obnoxious orange pajamas.

He looks deeply uncomfortable with the situation himself, gazing around the room and avoiding Sasuke’s eyes.

Sasuke arches a handsome eyebrow at the boy and levels him with Judgement Face No. 3, one he reserves for his childish friends and Obito, on occasion.

Goldilocks take a deep breath in.

“I...uh...I wanted to apologize for the other week. I realize now that turning down your challenge was an offensive thing to do, and probably embarrassed you in front of your friends,” Naruto says in a measured voice, like he rehearsed this apology ahead of time.

Sasuke’s mood sours at the implication that Naruto’s actions affected him. He won’t give the other boy that kind of power.

“Doesn’t explain why you did it,” Sasuke says coldly. “Either you do see yourself as above me, or you’re a coward.”

Naruto’s mouth gapes open at this. He looks like a really dumb fish, Sasuke notes with glee.

He struggles with words before finally coming to an answer.

“Ihaveunbalancedchakrasoitwasntsafeformetospar,” Naruto mumbles under his breath.

“What was that?’ Sasuke crows, “I can’t hear you when you talk like that.”

“I have unstable chakra, so it wasn’t safe for me to spar with you,” Naruto practically yells in the silence of the room.

He takes another deep breath before continuing.

“That’s why I’ve had all those appointments with the Hokage. We’re working on fixing it,” he admits.

Sasuke studies the boy now. He’s got an uncomfortable look on his face, his cheeks reddened in confusion, or possibly as aftermath of his outburst. He fidgets with a thread hanging off of his pajama shirt.

Sasuke takes pity on the boy.

“Well, I’m not one to accept excuses,” he drawls—Naruto tenses up.

“But I guess I’ll let you off the hook this one time. You owe me a spar once you figure out your whole...chakra situation,” Sasuke says as he looks Naruto up and down with mild disdain.

Naruto doesn’t seem to pick up on this though, because he flashes a thousand-watt smile at Sasuke.

“Of course! See you at training tomorrow!”

And Naruto is dashing out of the room.

Sasuke breaths out in relief.

He jumps when Naruto sticks his head back into the room, calling out, “And I’m glad you liked the scroll today!”

Once he’s absolutely sure the boy is gone, Sasuke takes another deep sigh of relief, settling down for the night.

He definitely needs to investigate this tomorrow morning.

 

\----

 

Kakashi is always late to practices, so even though Team 7 is supposed to meet at 9 o'clock sharp, Sasuke doesn’t have to get there until 11:30.

He wakes up at 7:48 A.M. to heavy banging on the door.

Blinking back sleep from his eyes, he makes his way to the front of the apartment, where Tsunade is impatiently waiting and grumbling.

Sasuke almost wishes Kakashi was Obito’s breakfast substitute instead.

The key word being almost.

He wordlessly lets Tsunade inside, and she takes a seat at the kitchen table while he starts the coffee pot.

Depending on who’s over, the breakfast plan changes.

Obito always insists on cooking. Kakashi is purposefully awful at it, so Sasuke cooks when he’s over. The Sandaime always brings fresh pastries from as nearby bakery. The two times the Yondaime came he created a whole brunch extravaganza, all while sporting a very frilly and very pink cooking apron. Tsunade, by contrast, refuses to move once she’s sat down at the table, but all she expects is coffee so at least she’s low maintenance.

Sasuke takes a hot pocket out of the freezer and begins to microwave it.

Normally both he and Tsunade are eager to finish quickly and leave, but Sasuke actually has a few questions today.

Tsunade is kind enough to pretend last afternoon’s conversation didn’t happen.

The microwave beeps shortly after the coffee maker finishes dripping, so Sasuke grabs his plate of steaming food and a mug of coffee before sitting down.

Tsunade makes grabby hands at the cup, snatching it from Sasuke without asking. As she sips it, Sasuke can see her visibly perk up.

He waits a few moments, poking at his formerly frozen meal in silence.

“I was just wondering,” he starts before he can chicken out, “what your thoughts are on Naruto. You seem to be good friends with Kushina, and you mentioned Naruto talking to you a few times this last week.”

Tsunade gives him an impressive stare, but Sasuke doesn’t back down.

She seems to take pity on him because she dips her head down to inhale more coffee before speaking.

“Yes, I’m familiar with him. He’s certainly unique,” she says cryptically.

“And…?” Sasuke implores.

Tsunade rolls her eyes at his persistence.

“He’s energetic and loud and obnoxious, but more than anything, he is compassionate,” she says seriously.

That’s not what Sasuke was expecting to hear.

“A bit like you, if I’m being honest. He’s got a lot of reasons to hate the world but here he is, forgiving it and making existence a bit brighter for those around him,” Tsunade tacks on.

“If he were a bit more goth, I’d probably get you two mixed up.”

Sasuke scowls at this, but you’d have to be blind to miss flush creeping up his ears.

“I don’t believe you,” Sasuke declares. “That first day he showed up here, he looked like he was going to cry the moment someone looked at him for too long.”

Tsunade looks like she wants to say something, but she holds off.

“And now I’m back a week later and he’s acting like he’s the most popular person in Konoha. So either he’s got an insane case of split personality or he’s a fake.”

Sasuke leans back in his chair proudly, now that he’s said his piece.

Tsunade, in a rare moment, struggles for words.

“His business isn’t mine to talk about, kid,” she finally settles on. “But I’ll tell you a little story about myself since you like those so much.”

Sasuke perks back up, intrigued at what Tsunade might have to say.

“They used to call me Tsunade-Hime when I was a kid,” Tsunade starts.

Princess Tsunade--it’s a fitting name for her, Sasuke thinks, in both attitude and talent.

“Being the granddaughter of the Shodaime, the niece of the Nidaime, it put me under a bit of a spotlight, and not in a good way.”

Sasuke nods at this. Sometimes being the last Uchiha feels that way to him too. People are expecting greatness from him, so they can say, ‘Oh, yes, that Uchiha Sasuke. I always knew he’d be amazing.”

Or, they’re expecting him to lose his marbles, in which case they can laugh from afar as they settle bets with friends.

There’s no leeway for him to be a normal human being.

“The Senju Clan Elders also took notice. They started hounding me about proper behavior, made me take etiquette classes. Then, they started telling me how to dress and how to act. The final straw was when they started telling me who I could and couldn’t be interact with,” Tsunade says in a hard voice.

Sasuke pictures Hinata and Neji, always a bit too stiff and formal in social situations.

And the Hyuuga and Uchiha have a lot in common.

Sasuke thinks of what he remembers of the Uchiha Clan—the navy-blue uniforms and the embroidered family crest on every article of clothing. He thinks about how Itachi and Shisui never had other friends come over to visit the compound, and he thinks of his father’s tired eyes after every meeting with his grandparents and great aunts and uncles. The Senju, for all their rivalry with the Uchiha, seem rather similar in the end.

“What did you do?” Sasuke asked, afraid for this child version of Tsunade he’s imagined to be so similar to himself.

Tsunade cracks a smile.

“I told them to go fuck themselves.”

Sasuke thinks of Obito, stripped of his family history and name.

“Did they threaten to disown you?” Sasuke probes.

Tsunade throws her head back and laughs at that.

“They wouldn't have tried. I was already earning a reputation for my strength and wisdom, though they did not call me Sanin yet. The Hokage himself was my teacher.”

“What do they think of you now?” Sasuke asks, on the edge of his seat.

“They don’t,” Tsunade says with pride in her voice. “They’re all dead now, and I’m one of the few Senju left. The only one of any importance, certainly.”

Sasuke stares in shock at that. He cannot fathom being so flippant about the loss of one’s entire family.

The both sit in silence on that somber note, Tsunade quietly sipping at her coffee while Sasuke chews away at his hot pocket.

Sasuke usually likes Tsunade’s stories, but this one leaves a bitter taste in his mouth even as he finishes up his breakfast. What’s the moral supposed to be here? You either spend your whole life under your family’s thumb or you alienate yourself from them entirely?

Sasuke supposes it doesn’t matter to him in the end. He doesn’t have to make solve this problem, unlike Obito or Tsunade or Hinata and Neji.

Itachi made his choice for him.

Tsunade gets up from her seat, wordlessly declaring her intention to leave.

Sasuke gets up to walk her to the door, because he’s a nice boy who was raised with manners, despite Obito’s best efforts otherwise.

At the doorway, Tsunade stops for a moment.

Sasuke waits expectantly, hoping for a good one-liner or insult from the woman before she parts ways.

Instead, Tsunade turns her head towards the blue sky above and muses to herself, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear, “...I wonder what kind of pressures Uzumaki Naruto’s family must put on him.”

And with that she’s gone, already striding down the street towards the hospital.

Oh.

Tsunade’s story makes a bit more sense now.

 

\----

 

Since he can't enter the Hokage Tower without signing in and having an appointment of some sort, Sasuke chooses the next best place to gather information.

The largest training dojo in town. Gai pointed it out once on one of their joint training sessions a couple months ago, saying that Jounin usually go here to practice so Genin teams and Chunin can make use of the Training Grounds.

The place is crawling with Jounin when Sasuke swings by—he spots a few of Obito’s friends walking inside, the ones without teams to train, like that creepy snake lady Anko and some indiscriminate Hyuugas.

With Tsunade off at work and Obito on a mission, Jounin are probably the best source of information on the Uzumaki outside of the Hokage himself.

The only problem is that it's very difficult to eavesdrop on war-hardened and battle-tested Shinobi.

Luckily for Sasuke, his teacher is one of the best Jounin in the entire village. Sasuke’s spying abilities are textbook.

He loops around to the backside of the massive building. The alley back here is narrow and on the other side of the rickety wooden fence, the Wednesday marketplace is setting up. Good. The noises and people will mask his own chakra presence.

Sasuke spots a few trash cans among the gravel and high walls of the Dojo, and he climbs into one before anybody can see him back here.

The smell is awful, but Sasuke knows that Shinobi must weather through worse on routine missions. Consider this resistance training.

He sits patiently for a total of five minutes before he hears the back door of the Dojo swing wide on creaky hinges. There are footsteps on the gravel, two sets he thinks. They stop suddenly and Sasuke holds his breath, scared he’d been discovered before he even had a chance to start.

But then there’s a tell-tale click of a lighter and even through the smell of rotting food, Sasuke can detect cigarette smoke. Two rumbling voices start up a conversation.

Sasuke listens aptly.

 

\----

 

It takes a full hour of Shinobi smoke breaks before Sasuke finally hears anything about the Uzumakis. In the meantime, he learns far more information than he ever wanted to know.

Like the fact that Asuma and Kurenai-Sensei have been having a secret affair for the past four years—he’ll never be able to look at the faces of Team 8 and 10 again without thinking about all the...positions...their teachers were caught in around town. He finds out that Genma, the resident senbon specialist and bodyguard to the Hokage, waxes his chest the second Sunday of every month. One Jounin even reminisces about a hookup gone wrong with scary-lady-Anko, where certain body parts that will not be mentioned were turned into snakes.

But patience is a virtue, and finally, Sasuke learns about the Uzumaki.

It goes like this:

Three older Jounin, about the Yondaime’s age, are sharing stories from the Third Shinobi War. One of them mentions something about a mission that the Yellow Flash of Konoha was involved in.

Sasuke, for the record, knows how to do his research. He’s read newspapers from that period in Shinobi history and knows that the Yondaime was once called the Yellow Flash, for his golden hair, incredible speed, and Hiraishin teleportation technique.

But they mention another name, a partner the Yondaime often worked with during the war. The Jounin refer to the mysterious person as the Red-Hot Habanero, a Jounin from the Uzushio contingent before Uzushio was destroyed mid-war.

Honestly, who the hell comes up with these names? If Sasuke was alive back then, he’d beat the ass of anyone who tried to give him a stupid color-based nickname in the papers. He can picture it now—”Ruby-Eyed Ronin” or “The Onyx Uchiha”, they would call him.

But Sasuke’s mind is wandering too much, so he focuses back in on what they’re saying. 

 

The Uzumakis are from Uzushio, and apparently this Hot-Blooded Habanero or whatever was a seal master.

Maybe the naming pattern isn’t so stupid after all. If the Yondaime got his nickname from his hair color, maybe this Uzushio soldier did too.

A redhead. Just like the majority of the Uzumaki clan.

And something from Sasuke’s memories triggers, because he remembers the morning he and Sakura cleaned the apartment while Kakashi and Obito gossiped on the couch. And Obito said something that freaked Sasuke out.

Because Obito said he knew Uzumaki Kushina during the war. That she and “Minato-Sensei” worked together.

A former history between the Uzumaki Clan Head and the Hokage would explain why this diplomatic mission has come together so smoothly so far, disregarding Naruto’s behavior and the possibility of meddling Elders.

But the Jounin still aren’t done talking. They move onto gossip about what they love most—sordid and forbidden love affairs.

And they’re still talking about Namikaze Minato, not Hokage-sama, and Uzumaki Kushina, a spitting image of the legendary Jinchuuriki Mito, whose nickname does her beautiful hair a disservice.

It’s gross to hear, but it fits together too easily for it all to be a coincidence.

Sasuke leans in towards the Jounin to hear more, as a best as he can inside the small metal garbage can.

“Kushina’s boy,” one Jounin drawls after a long drag from a cigarette, “looks quite similar to the Hokage.”

Sasuke goes still as a statue.

The other Jounin chuckle at this like it’s old information.

“I thought we were done pretending with this whole ‘diplomatic mission’. Everyone person with a set of eyes and a brain between their ears can see that the Hokage is just trying to get Konoha citizenship for his bastard son.”

Everyone with a set of eyes and a brain between their ears except for Sasuke, apparently.

As the information seeps in, Sasuke hears ringing in his ears and the pounding of his heartbeat. His palms are practically dripping with sweat, his lips moving silently as he parses through this village wide conspiracy.

At the center of it all is his brief object of affections, his former object of animosity, and his current object of interest.

Uzumaki Naruto.

 

\----

 

The Jounin eventually move onto other topics, dismissing the whole thing as ‘old news’. By the time they finish their smoking break and head back inside, Sasuke’s legs have grown stiff from being folded up and tensed for so long.

If he doesn’t leave now, he won’t have time to take a shower before practice.

 

\----

 

By the time Sasuke arrives at Training Ground 15, he’s mostly snapped out of his fugue state.

Across the clearing, Sakura, Sai, and Naruto are gathered in a tight cluster, probably talking about Sasuke and the weird apology exchange last night.

Kakashi is nowhere in sight, so Sasuke still has time to try to gain information from Naruto himself.

His teammates turn at the sound of his approach, Sakura and Sai cheerfully waving as Naruto lets out a joyful ‘good afternoon’.

He approaches with a calculated coolness, hands in his pockets and a brief ‘yo’ the way he’s seen Kakashi do it before.

Sakura rolls her eyes at the act and Sai watches with his typical impassiveness.

But Naruto, who has never seen Sasuke geeky or embarrassed before, is awestruck by the typical routine.

It’s a huge ego boost to Sasuke, who hasn’t gotten this kind of attention since his Academy days. Sure, he prefers having friends to fangirls, but he misses the respect and recognition.

He turns to Naruto.

“Did you have an appointment with Hokage today?” he asks, trying to judge Naruto’s reaction of the mention of a man who may or may not be his father.

It’s futile, because Naruto seems more excited about the fact that Sasuke is talking to him.

“Yeah,” Naruto’s face flushes a bit with embarrassment at the thought of his mysterious chakra problem. “I’m cleared for Taijutsu and premade Fuinjutsu, but that’s about it.”

He perks up a second later, flashing all of Team 7 a smile.

“But that’s okay. I’m best with those two anyways.”

A bold claim. He stills owes Sasuke a spar, though.

Their conversation is interrupted by a poof of smoke from the middle of the field, where Kakashi is now slouching, book in hand.

Out of habit more than annoyance, Sakura and Sasuke jump in with their typical accusations of “You’re late, Sensei!”

After a moment of confusion, Naruto joins in on the fun.

Kakashi silences them with one hand.

“I’m glad to see all my cute little Genin energized and excited for training. Let’s start with five laps around the village!” Kakashi says in that awful fake-cheery tone of voice.

Sakura is quick to complain, and Sasuke pulls out Bitch Face No. 1 to try to dissuade Kakashi from this Gai-and-Lee-styled warmup. It’s a wasted effort, because Kakashi is a cold-hearted demon at the end of the day.

“You’d better get started before you fall too far behind our illustrious guest,” Kakashi cautions, gesturing behind them.

Team 7 turns around to find the faint figure of Naruto, hair reflecting the sun like a beacon, already running towards the village perimeter.

“Son of a bitch!” Sasuke curses, and he and Sai and Sakura take off.

 

\----

 

Sasuke collapses into the ground next to Sakura, whose face has turned as pink as her hair.

Even Sai looks beat, his usual vacant stare replaced by an expression of mild discomfort.

Five laps is pretty brutal, even for Kakashi, and Sasuke’s sure he’ll be feeling the repercussions for a few days after.

Only Naruto seems mostly unaffected. Sure, he’s gasping for breath every few sentences, but the rate at which he’s chatting with Kakashi would make anyone winded.

He’s bombarding Kakashi with questions about Shinobi missions with a single-handed determination reminiscent of Ino’s social scheming.

The bastard doesn’t even look tired from their ‘simple warm up.’ Does he have some sort of freakish stamina? Sasuke doesn’t know if he can tolerate another friend like Lee, Uzumaki or not.

“Goldilocks,” Sasuke interrupts, “Just sit down with the rest of us and pretend to be a normal Genin for one second.”

Naruto looks surprised at the nickname and the comment, but his stupor gives way to an impish grin.

“Sure, but only if you promise to pull that stick out of your ass.

He strides over to Sasuke, settling down next to him.

Sasuke flops back down onto the grass, head staring up at the blue, blue sky.

Much better, Sasuke thinks with a smile.

 

\----

 

They move through stretches and katas in an orderly fashion, the only disruption being Team 7’s typical banter.

It always starts with Sai, because he’s Sai and the goal of his existence is to be as disarmingly offensive as possible. Sasuke will take the bait, responding to his creepy comments with a cutting comeback he’s heard Tsunade lay on far older and stronger Shinobi, or on a good day, an insult of his own devising.

Sai will blink owlishly at Sasuke, which will piss him off even more, and Sakura will intervene with some brutal insult aimed at the both of them. Or, if she’s feeling generous, she’ll steer the conversation towards Kakashi, who they can all gang up on together. Kakashi’s always saying they should improve their teamwork, so it’s not like he can complain.

Today, though, there is an extra element involved. An element dressed in an obnoxious orange shirt with a spiral crest embroidered on it.

Against all of Sasuke’s expectations, Naruto slots himself into the routine as naturally as a fish in a fast-flowing river.

He’s not deterred by Sai’s odd social cues or general demeanor and seems unaffected by Sasuke’s air of superiority. He even shoots the shit with Sakura and Kakashi, careful not to rile them too much for fear they will retaliate.

Sasuke finds himself having more fun than he has in weeks, drawn into a personal battle of wits with Naruto while the other members of Team 7’s eyes dart back and forth between the two like they’re watching a good tennis match.

“Moron,” he starts, while easing through the warrior stance, “didn’t anyone ever tell you that good Shinobi should be neither seen nor heard.”

He runs his eyes over Naruto’s outfit with a pointed look. If spending time with Sakura—and by extension, Ino—has taught him anything at all, it’s how to insult someone’s physical appearance.

“That orange isn’t doing your body or complexion any favors.”

Naruto opens his mouth to yell at Sasuke or curse him out, but he thinks better of it by responding, “At least I’m not dressed like Halloween is just around the corner. Did you forget your black lipstick at home?”

Sakura lets out a bark of laughter at that and Sasuke finds himself grinning too, a reply ready on the tip of his tongue.

And round and round it goes until they’ve run through all their katas and are ready to spar.

Kakashi beckons them over to the tree line for some quick target practice, so Sasuke heads over.

Sakura jogs up to him, leaning over to whisper something in his ear.

“Don’t try to act like we didn’t all see that,” she says with a nervous glance behind her in Naruto and Sai’s direction.

“See what?” he responds innocently.

“You know,” she wiggles her light eyebrows suggestively. “The last fifteen minutes you just spent flirting with Naruto.”

“I did not!” he says, offended at the mere suggestion.

“For god’s sake,” Sakura shakes her head, “you smiled at him. You never smile in public.”

Sasuke pauses at that because, shit, Sakura is right.

She’s walking away before he can defend himself.

 

\----

 

Naruto, Sasuke learns through the next few exercises, is excessive in everything he does.

He’s quick to get upset, but equally quick to forgive, even when Sai’s hollow apologies for calling him “dickless” are unconvincing.

He dubs Sakura as Sakura-chan, swooning and dramatically throwing himself into her arms to compliment her strength when she shatters a literal tree to demonstrate her chakra control.

He’s loud and up in Sasuke’s face, drawing his attention back when it subconsciously stays to darker thoughts after a brief conversation about Genjutsu and the power of bloodline limits like the Sharingan.

When Sasuke’s pointed questions get too personal, Naruto’s entire body flushes and his eyes skirt to the ground so similar to the way they did on that first day in Konoha.

He’s attentive and sharp when Kakashi lectures and gives the same regard and full body focus to the rest of Team 7 when they’re talking to him.

He’s louder than even Sakura, but it’s all fun obstinance and rebelliousness, a playful act to match his appearance.

Sasuke’s always been a bit of a wallflower except around those he intimately trusts. Obito says it’s because he has a soft heart, and keeping people out means it won’t get broken so easily.

It’s a stupid idea, but Sasuke is admittedly a bit unapproachable and aloof on his good days, and downright cold on a bad one.

It’s why he doesn’t mesh well with social butterflies and loud mouths like Kiba or Ino. He’ll take the subdued company of Hinata or Shikamaru over them anyday.

So logically speaking, he should despise everything Naruto is. The noise level, the appearance, the impulsiveness and optimism—they’re all qualities that annoy Sasuke to no end.

There’s no reasonable explanation for why he finds himself enjoying Naruto’s presence so much.

Another piece to the ever evolving Uzumaki puzzle, he supposes.

 

\----

 

Sparring with Naruto is something else entirely. He’s faster than Karin by a longshot, and he’s relying solely on Taijutsu to carry him through this fight.

He charges at Sasuke, all impulsive and clumsy energy.

Naruto’s left arm is swinging out wide, his body clearly telegraphing the attack.

Sasuke braces himself for a counter, smirking at Naruto’s inexperienced Taijutsu.

A split second before the attack lands, Naruto’s entire body contorts mid-motion, and instantaneously, he’s aiming for Sasuke’s exposed flank.

Sasuke pivots hard, only barely managing to block the blow.

Naruto’s already darting away before Sasuke can retaliate. Not that he would. He’s still stunned by that insane maneuver.

Nevermind. It must’ve been a fluke, he thinks as he centers himself again.

Five minutes later, and Sasuke is very quickly learning that this chaotic fighting style is most definitely intentional. Naruto is impossible to predict, and has landed multiple hits on Sasuke by now, knocking the breath out of him every time Naruto’s fist makes contact.

Sasuke is reminded of Sakura’s style, but there’s no rhyme or reason to Naruto’s movements. He’s not analyzing Sasuke’s physicality and optimizing his attacks in turn.

Sure, he’s landing more hits now than he did five minutes ago, but Sasuke is chalking that up to crazy intuition and instinct. And Sasuke is progressively getting more and more tired as the match goes on, not used to relying do heavily on Taijutsu alone.

That brings up the second conundrum.

Naruto isn’t slowing down or showing any signs of exhaustion, and his flurry of movement expends far more energy than Sasuke’s simple blocking patterns. Sasuke thinks back to their ‘light jog’ this morning and Naruto’s reaction, or lack thereof.

He’s a freak of nature. An absolute endurance machine.

Sasuke won’t outlast him like he had hoped. So, he does the only thing he can think of.

Sasuke activates his Sharingan.

Naruto’s chakra is blinding, dense as Sakura’s fist was yesterday and it’s spread all over his body. He’s not even actively using it and it looks like a literal supernova.

The feeling of the chakra shifts as Naruto moves about, one minute a mild and cool sensation, the next a bitter burning feeling that singes the hair on Sasuke’s arms. It’s a mottled color, electric blue-white one in splotches and overwhelmingly red-orange in others.

When Naruto said his chakra was unstable, he wasn’t joking around.

Sasuke dismantles the Sharingan, Naruto’s chakra too disorienting for him to focus on purely physical movements.

He’s distracted by what he just saw, which is why he misses Naruto’s sudden movement in his direction. There’s a shadow descending on him, and the last thing he remembers before blacking out is an orange-clad fist.

 

\----

 

He wakes up to the cool touch of Sakura’s healing chakra. Her head is framed by the blue sky, a concerned look on her face. Sai is next to her, ineffectually fanning at Sasuke’s face with his sketchbook.

Out of eyesight, he can hear Naruto’s loud voice against Kakashi's quiet one.

“Please, you can't tell anyone. It was an honest mistake. I didn’t mean to hit Sasuke that hard! He activated his weird eye-thingy everyone’s been talking about, so I thought he wanted me to come at him harder or at least dodge the hit and by the time I realized he wasn’t paying attention it was too late to stop!” says Naruto, his voice rising in panic.

Kakashi hums in agreement but Naruto isn’t done yet.

“If anyone finds out, even my mom, they won’t let me back out. They’ll ban me from seeing Team 7 or the rest of the Genin.” He sounds like he’s on the verge of tears now.

Kakashi starts to speak.

“Naruto,” he sighs, “it’s okay. We’ll just check on Sasu—”

“They’ll make me leave Konoha!” Naruto wails, his voice choking into sobs by the end of the sentence.

Kakashi is shushing him now, whispering “it’s ok” repeatedly to Naruto until his crying turns into heavy breathing, which eventually turns into silence.

Sakura and Sai have noticed he’s awake by now, but before they can pester him with questions, Sasuke loudly clears his voice.

“I’m glad you stopped crying. Goldilocks,” he says with dry sarcasm, “or else I would’ve passed out again from your shrill sobbing.”

Everyone is silent for a moment before Naruto laughs.

“Stuff it, Bastard!” he counters, a smile in his voice even if Sasuke can’t see him from here.

 

\----

 

Practice ends pretty quickly after that, once Sakura heals up the giant shiner on Sasuke’s face.

Naruto spends the entire time apologizing profusely, a guilty look warping his boyish features.

One by one they leave the field, Naruto still awkwardly shuffling about in the middle of the clearing.

Before he goes, Sasuke leans in close to Naruto’s ear, careful that no one nearby will hear him.

“Meet me at my favorite spot in the village in thirty minutes,” Sasuke says cryptically before setting off.

Naruto may not know it, but he’s just been issued a challenge.

 

\----

 

Thirty-two minutes later, and Sasuke’s perched on the highest rooftop in Konoha as the sun sets, no Naruto in sight.

He tries to swallow down the disappointment, but to no avail.

He’s about ready to get up when he hears someone grunting, and there’s a bright figure crawling towards him on the red roof tiles. It’s probably pretty difficult to get up here without the aid of chakra, but Naruto seems to have managed.

“You’re late,” Sasuke announces once Naruto is in earshot. Sasuke despises lateness.

“To be fair,” Naruto retorts as he pulls himself over to Sasuke’s side, “your instructions were pretty freaking vague. I had to ask about twenty different people where you were before I found you.”

Sasuke hums in acknowledgement.

“A longer window of time would’ve been considerate, you bastard,” Naruto says jovially.

That’s true, but this is a test of sorts.

Because for all Sasuke pretends otherwise, Obito's right about the ‘soft heart’ thing. He only lets in people he absolutely trusts. He’s been burned too many times before to have the same unshakable faith in humanity that people like Sakura have.

So, he’ll test Naruto’s commitment. If Naruto fails, well...they weren't meant to be friends after all.

After a comfortable silence settles between them, Sasuke speaks.

“You are a complete enigma,” he declares.

Naruto, following a moment of confusion, plays along.

“Oh, I think I’m a pretty simple guy, once you get to know me.”

“Not at all,” Sasuke counters quickly. “You blew hot and cold to me that first week. A shy, whimpering boy one moment, a high-and-mighty asshole the next.”

“I thought I cleared this up alrea--”

Sasuke interrupts. “And I come back this week, and you’re the most popular guy in town, trying to steal even my own best friend away from me.”

Naruto looks slightly ashamed at this, like he knows exactly what Sasuke’s talking about.

“But that’s okay,” Sasuke says primly, “because I did some digging on you, to better understand who this mysterious Uzumaki Naruto is.”

He steels himself for this next part. Either Naruto will be creeped out and offended and leave, or he’ll stay and hear Sasuke out. If he can’t handle this sort of scrutiny, he doesn’t deserve Sasuke’s friendship.

Because Sasuke loves intensely, with his whole being. He has so little left in the world.

If his love and loyalty are too overwhelming to someone, they never deserved it in the first place.

“Uzumaki Naruto, son of Clan Head Uzumaki Kushina, survivor of the Uzushio massacre,”  
Sasuke begins. “A pampered upbringing, despite his refugee status. Received advanced training in the ancient art of Fuinjutsu, making him far more capable than the average-thirteen-year old Genin.”

Naruto opens his mouth as if to object, but Sasuke presses onwards.

“The only hang-up comes from his own family. The Uzumaki were once great and powerful, integral to the establishment of both Uzushio and Konoha. But their clan elders are the same as any other—controlling and strict. They see little Naruto, with his unstable chakra and free-spirit attitude, and they decide he’s a problem. So, Naruto lives a life under the watchful eye of the Elders, meek and obedient like most clan children are. Underneath the manufactured personality, he chafes against chains so similar to his family’s own bloodline limit.”

Naruto nods in agreement, his attention rapt on Sasuke’ beautifully woven story.

“But there’s a complication when they come to Konoha,” Sasuke adds. “Everybody in town knows about it, their eyes transfixed on little Naruto wherever he goes.”

“Because Uzumaki Naruto is the bastard son of the Hokage.”

He doesn’t look at Naruto as he finishes his story. For once, Konoha seems still and silent below their dangling feet.

He expects Naruto to leave in humiliation, to frantically shush him, to stumble over excuses.

He doesn’t get any of those things when Naruto deigns to speak.

“It’s a good story,” Naruto muses quietly. “I loved the Clan Elders bit. It’s almost like I can feel their eyes on me in this very moment.”

Sasuke looks up in surprise, but Naruto is barreling ahead, as always.

“There’s some minor inaccuracies, but I’d be happy to correct them,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

“Uzumaki Naruto grows up an orphan in a tiny trading outpost on the border of Whirlpool and Fire Country. People there know he’s the son of Shinobi, Shinobi they haven’t forgiven for the War, and an outsider besides.”

Sasuke sits still and listens, unsure of what to do. He never expected this.

“They hated him. And little Naruto grows into a rebellious and free spirit because of it. Or in spite of it.”

Naruto looks perturbed as he continues, “When he’s ten, a beautiful woman comes to town, long red hair trailing behind her. She’s from a place that no longer exists, something Naruto only heard about in rumors—a place called Uzushio. But this is where things really turn into a fairytale. Because this woman claims be to be Uzumaki Kushina, long-lost mother of Uzumaki Naruto.”

There’s a hard anger in Naruto’s voice at this, so intense that even the air seems to still around them.

“Little Uzumaki gets a family,” Naruto says cheerfully, his tone so different a second ago.  
“It’s a family with a bitchy distant cousin who’s more like a sister, and a high-energy and fiercely intelligent mother who isn’t quite ready to be a mother, and Clan Elders who impose an insane amount of rules on Naruto. But it’s better than everything Naruto has ever experienced before.”

He looks Sasuke dead in the eye for the next part.

“You were right about the bastard son thing. None of us will say it, but the truth is just sitting out there, like an unlit powder keg. Ready to blow up in everyone’s faces,” Naruto says with a bitter smile.

Kinda like Kakashi and Obito’s matching eyes, Sasuke thinks with dawning understanding.

Naruto isn’t done with his story.

“Naruto comes to Konoha and he meets lots of great people. People he could grow to love and cherish in time, a bigger family for Naruto’s greedy heart. But there’s this one boy. Dark eyes, darker hair. He’s a total asshole to little Naruto. Then he’s gone for a week. And when he comes back? He’s different. More fragile. And Naruto sees him at a party one night, and he looks so fucking lonely there. Naruto understands the feeling. He decides he’s gonna be friends with this kid. Maybe he even realizes he’s been an asshole to the Uchiha boy too.”

Naruto finishes his story with a small smile, just as genuine as the grins that nearly split his face apart.

Sasuke is blown away by the absolute sincerity of this boy. Tsunade was so right about him. He feels a pang of regret at all his past behavior.

“I guess I was a bit of a dick,” Sasuke shyly admits.

“So was I,” Naruto retorts.

Make no mistake, things aren’t good. Sasuke has the nightmare of his past to deal with, the burden of avenging his clan heavy on his shoulders. Itachi’s eyes will always be imprinted in Sasuke’s brain, cruel and bloody and all-seeing. Naruto seems like he’s got a pretty bad past himself, and an uncertain future. But in this moment, things feel like they might just be okay.

The best feeling in the world is Obito’s hugs. That is indisputable.

But this? The instant connection and understanding between him and Naruto?

It’s pretty fucking good, too.

 

\----

 

He learns another thing about Naruto that night.

The boy loves talking. He’ll fill up any empty space with words, and he’ll do it in the most endearing way possible.

He’s launched into some story about talking frogs and pervy authors he met as a child, but Sasuke’s only half listening.

He’s staring at Naruto’s animated face as he speaks. He’s got expressive eyebrows and eyes to match the hyperactivity of the rest of his body.

Naruto’s still got baby fat on his face, something Sasuke never noticed before. Underneath that are his mother’s exotic facial features and his father’s hair color.

He doesn’t notice how Sasuke is staring at him, admiring the way his eyes shine and how his hair reflects the low setting sun, fiery like the rest of the Uzumakis.

Mr. and Mr. Uchiha-Uzumaki, Sasuke thinks. It’s got a good ring to it.

Wait.

That came out of absolutely nowhere.

Sasuke feels his face grow hot, Naruto still chattering away happily in the background. They’re pressed so close together that he can feel other the boy’s body heat.

Oh Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok. Whew. 30,000 words in the span of two weeks. Let's not do that again.  
> As you might've guessed from the inconsistent pacing and sporadic update schedule, when I started writing I didn't have a super strong idea of where I was going with this story beyond a basic scene...a scene that doesn't even appear in Strangers at the Gates. As I threw myself into writing this, the plot grew more and more involved in my head. So, I've decided to expand this into a series. I'll do a couple one shots involving other characters (Kushina and Minato, anyone?) and a time-skip long series that resolves the "pre-slash" tag of Visitors at the Gates. It might take a while, because I need to take a break and improve my writing style a bit. As always, your hits and kudos and comments were a huge inspiration. Thank you so much.  
> Go ahead and drop complaints in the comment section below, or leave me an anonymous hate message on prospider.tumblr.com :)


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